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JESUS     CHRIST: 


CONFERENCES 


DELrrERED   AT 


n6tRE  dame  in  PARIS. 


EEY.    PERE    LAOORDAIEE, 

OP   THE   OltDER  OP   SAINT   DOMINIC. 


Translated  from  the  French,  with  the  Author's  Permission, 
BT  A  Tertiary  of  the  same  Order. 


NEW  YORK: 
P.    O'SHEA,    27    BARCLAY    STREET. 


Entered  according  to  Act  ol  Congress,  in  the  year  1870,  by 

P.  O  SHEA, 
\a  tne  Office  31  the  Librarian  of  Congress  »t  vVasuingtoii. 


STBREOTTPED  BT 

DENNIS    BRO'S    A     THORNE, 

AUBURN,   N.    T. 


Tn     M.EMORIAM. 

¥■■ 

^OME,    yVlAY    27TH,     1864. 


}i.  p.  y 


TRANSLATOR'S    PREFACE. 


The  subject  of  tlie  following  Conferences  is 
daily  attracting  increased  attention  in  England 
— so  justly  famed  for  her  religious  feeling  and 
strong  sense,  yet  so  distracted  by  divisions  which 
contradict  the  authority,  the  object,  and  the  work 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Many  minds  that  know  not  the 
repose  of  divine  faith,  are — ^timidly  perhaps,  but 
anxiously — watching  this  great  question ;  requir- 
ing, not  only  to  believe,  but  also  and  rightly,  to 
know  why  they  should  believe. 

Humbly  desiring  to  discharge  a  part  of  the 
deep  debt  of  gratitude  which  he  owes  to  the  au- 
thor of  these  celebrated  discourses,  the  translator 
respectfully  offers  them  to  his  well-beloved  country 
as  a  guide  in  her  present  religious  confusion  and 
a  support  in  her  manifest  and  perplexing  doubts, 
hoping  and  believing  that  they  will  be  to  others 
what  they  have  been  to  him,  namely,  heralds  of 
that  "  glorious  liberty  "  which  is  the  ever-blessed 
fruit  of  Catholic  Christianity. 

Whitsuntlde,  1869. 


I]S"DEX. 


The  Inner  Life  of  Jesus  Christ, 9 

The  Public  Power  of  Jesus  Christ, 50 

The  Foundation  of  the  Reign  of  Jesus  Christ, 82 

The  Perpetuity  and  Progress  of  the  Reign  of  Jesus 

Christ, 118 

The  Pre-existencc  of  Jesus  Christ, 153 

The  Efforts  of  Rationalism  to  Destroy  the  Life  of  Jesus 

Christ, 193 

The  Efforts  of  Rationalism  to  Pervert  the  Life  of  Jesus 

Christ, 232 

The  Efforts  of  Rationalism  to  Explain  the  Life  of  Jesus 

Christ, 269 


CONFERENCES. 


THE  INNER  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


My  Lokd' — Gentlemen"  : 

In  demonstrating  tlie  divinity  of  Christianity 
we  liave  not  taken  our  starting-point  in  the  pro- 
found depths  of  metaphysics  or  in  the  distant 
regions  of  history,  but  in  a  living,  palpable  phe- 
nomenon, which  has  been  for  ages  before  the 
world ;  we  have  analyzed  this  phenomenon,  we 
have  shown  you  that  under  the  intellectual,  moral 
and  social  points  of  view,  the  Catholic  Church  is 
a  phenomenon  unique  here  below,  and  therefore 
divine.  For  whatsoever  is  human  is  multiple, 
since  whatsoever  men  have  been  able  to  accom- 
plish in  a  given  time  and  place,  other  men  are 
able  to  accomplish  in  other  times  and  places. 
We  have  then  changed  the  ordinary  tactics — 
instead  of  starting  from  the  basis  we  have  started 

'  MoNSEiGNBUR  Affbb,  Archbishop  of  Paris. 


10 


from  the  summit,  instead  of  digging  about  the 
foundations  of  the  pyramid,  we  have  examined 
its  apex  and  its  crown,  beginning  by  that  which 
is  most  visible,  to  return  afterwards  to  that  which 
is  most  hidden,  and  which  bears  the  whole  mass. 
A  writer  of  our  times  has  said :  Christianity  is 
the  greatest  event  which  has  passed  in  the  world. 
We  have  said  otherwise,  and  perhaps  better: 
"  Christianity  is  the  greatest  phenomenon  which 
has  been  naturalized  in  the  world,  the  greatest 
intellectual  phenomenon,  the  greatest  moral  phe- 
nomenon, the  greatest  social  phenomenon,"  some- 
thing unique,  in  a  word,  and,  yet  once  more, 
consequently  divine. 

But  what  is  the  primary  cause  of  this  phenom- 
enon ?  Every  phenomenon  has  a  cause.  After 
having  examined  its  visible  side,  we  should  evi- 
dently examine  that  which  has  produced  the 
spectacle,  that  which  explains  and  supports  it. 
Who,  then,  has  made  the  Catholic  Church  ?  Who 
has  founded  that  society  which  rules  minds  by 
certainty,  regulates  souls  by  the  highest  virtues, 
blesses  the  human  race  by  the  new  elements  it 
has  given  to  civilization  ?  Who  has  formed, 
under  a  hierarchy  spiritual  and  unarmed,  that 
body  wherein  conviction,  holiness,  unity,  univer- 


11 


sality,  stability,  and  life,  form  a  tissue  of  super- 
liuman  and  incontestable  beauty  ?  Who  has  de- 
signed and  produced  it  ?  Is  it  time,  or  chance  ? 
Is  it  the  work  of  many,  or  of  one  alone  ?  It  is 
but  one,  yes,  one  alone,  a  man,  that  is  to  say, 
nothing;  the  word  of  a  man,  which  is  but  a 
passing  breath.  Behold  the  artist !  God  has  so 
willed  it,  then,  that  the  foundation  of  this  great 
work  should  be  something  resembling  ourselves, 
and  that  man,  so  weak,  so  vain,  should,  like 
Atlas,  bear  heaven  and  earth  upon  his  shoulders. 
Who  is  this  man  ?  What  name  does  he  bear  on 
the  tongues  and  in  the  memorials  of  the  human 
race  ?  I  have  no  need  to  tell  you :  his  name 
speaks  and  resounds  of  itself.  Every  man  knows 
it  from  love  or  hatred,  and  in  naming  Jesus 
Christ  I  am  but  the  remote  echo  of  all  ages  and 
all  minds.  Jesus  Christ,  then  !  Jesus  Christ ! 
He  is  the  artist !  It  is  he  who  founded  that 
Church  whose  ineffable  architecture  we  have 
contemplated  together:  I  speak  of  the  Church 
under  her  present  form,  for  the  Church  has  ex- 
isted upon  earth  from  the  day  when  God  first 
spake  to  man,  and  when  man  first  responded  from 
his  heart  to  God. 

The  artist  found,  gentlemen,  it  is  needful  to 


12 


study  his  history,  that  we  may  be  able  to  judge 
whether  the  workman  answers  to  the  work,  and 
whether,  after  having  seen  that  the  work  is 
divine  in  itself,  its  divinity  will  receive  confirma- 
tion from  the  life  of  him  who  produced  it.  In 
order  to  do  this  we  must  first  learn  where  to  seek 
for  the  elements  of  that  life.  This  difiiculty  is 
not  great.  Like  every  man  who  appears  at  an 
epoch  which  is  historical  and  rendered  famous 
by  his  works,  Jesus  Christ  has  a  history,  a  his- 
tory which  the  Church  and  the  world  possess,  and 
which,  surrounded  by  countless  memorials,  has 
at  the  least  the  same  authenticity  as  any  other 
history  formed  in  the  same  countries,  amidst  the 
same  peoj^les  and  in  the  same  times.  As,  then, 
if  I  would  study  the  lives  of  Brutus  and  Cassius, 
I  should  calmly  open  Plutarch,  I  open  the  Gospel 
to  study  Jesus  Christ,  and  I  do  so  with  the  same 
composure.  We  will  afterwards  examine  whether 
I  have  erred  in  admitting  this  preliminary  authen- 
ticity ;  I  assume  it  now,  being  in  possession  of  it, 
subject  to  my  returning  to  it  by  retracing  our 
steps  at  a  future  period,  in  order  to  verify  the 
documents  and  base  them  upon  a  degree  of  cer- 
tainty worthy  of  the  sacred  object  of  our  inves- 
tigation.    I  take  the  Gospel,  then,  provisionally, 


13 


for  my  historical  title.  You  are  free  to  make 
wliat  reserve  you  please  as  to  its  authenticity  and 
veracity ;  it  is  a  right  which  I  do  not  dispute,  as 
I  know  you  will  also  be  just  enough  to  respect 
in  the  Gospel,  at  least  provisionally,  the  faith  of 
twenty  centuries,  and  the  natural  weight  of  that 
which  forms  so  conspicuous  a  part  of  the  world\s 


Lord  Jesus,  for  ten  years  I  have  spoken  of  thy 
Church  to  this  auditory,  yet,  it  is  indeed  of  thee 
that  I  have  always  spoken ;  but  now,  and  more 
directly,  I  come  to  thyself — to  those  divine  fea- 
tures, which  are  the  daily  object  of  my  contem- 
plation— to  thy  sacred  feet,  which  I  have  so  often 
kissed — to  thy  divine  hands,  which  have  so  often 
blessed  me — to  thy  forehead,  crowned  with  glory 
and  with  thorns — to  that  life  whose  sweetness  I 
have  respired  from  my  birth,  which  my  youth 
disregarded,  which  my  manhood  regained,  which 
my  riper  age  adores  and  proclaims  to  every  crea- 
ture. O  Father !  O  Master !  O  Friend  !  O  Jesus ! 
second  me  now  more  than  ever,  since,  being  closer 
to  thee,  it  is  meet  that  my  hearers  should  perceive 
it,  and  that  the  words  which  fall  from  my  lips 
should  manifest  the  nearness  of  thy  adorable 
presence ! 


14 


There  are  two  lives — the  outer  life  and  the 
inner  life.  The  outer  life  would  be  nothing  with- 
out the  inner  life.  The  inner  life  is  the  support 
of  the  other,  and  therefore,  desiring  to  study  the 
life  of  Jesus  Christ,  I  must  begin  by  examining 
his  inner  life.  But  what  is  this  inner  life  ?  It  is 
the  converse  between  ourselves  and  ourselves. 
Every  man  converses  with  himself,  every  man 
speaks  to  himself,  and  that  converse  with  him- 
self is  his  inner  life,  as  that  which,  from  all  eter- 
nity, God  makes  with  himself  in  the  mystery  of 
his  three  divine  persons  is  his  inner  life.  Every 
man,  every  intelligent  being,  holds  this  inner  con- 
verse with  himself,  which  forms  his  real  life.  The 
rest  is  but  a  semblance,  when  it  is  not  the  pro- 
duce of  that  inner  life.  The  inner  life  is  the 
whole  man,  and  forms  all  the  worth  of  man. 
One  is  clothed  in  purple,  and  yet  he  is  worthless, 
because  his  converse  with  himself  is  that  of  a 
worthless  being ;  and  another  passes  along  our 
streets  barefoot  and  in  rags,  who  is  a  great  man, 
because  his  inner  converse  is  that  of  a  hero  or  a 
saint.  On  the  day  of  judgment  we  shall  see  this 
changing  being  within  and  without,  and  the  mys- 
terious colloquy  of  each  man  being  known,  his 
history  will   then  begin.     Now,  we  proceed  as 


15 


best  we  can  from  the  outer  to  tlie  inner  life ;  for, 
if  tliis  gift  of  judging  the  inner  by  the  outer  life 
had  not  been  granted  to  us,  if  our  outer  life  were 
any  other  thing  than  a  permanent  transpiration 
of  our  inner  life,  we  should  be  but  spectres  to 
each  other,  we  should  pass  by  without  knowing 
one  another,  as  maskers  who  pass  each  other  in 
the  night.     Happily,  and  thanks  to  God,  there 
are  orifices  through  which  our  inner  life  con- 
stantly escapes,  and  the  soul,  like  the  blood,  hath 
its  pores.     The  mouth  is  the  chief  and  foremost 
of  these  channels  which  lead  the  soul  out  of  its 
invisible  sanctuary;  it  is  by  speech  that  man 
communicates  the  secret  converse  which  is  his 
real  life.     And  although  every  man  thus  speaks 
from  within  to  without,  there  are  men  in  whom 
this  manifestation  of  themselves  is  more  espec- 
ially called  for,  more  needful,  more  authentic. 
They  are  those  who  come  before  the  world  with 
doctrines  destined  by  them  to  become  laws.     For 
the  first  question  put  to  them  is :  Who  are  you  ? 
What  say  you  of  yourselves  ?     As  the  priests  of 
Jerusalem  sent  men  to  ask  John  the  Baptist  in 
the  desert :  Tu  quis  es  ?     Quid  dicis  de  teipso  ? ' 
First  of  all,  since  you  are  not  a  man  like  other 

1  St.  John  i.  22. 


16 


men,  tell  us  wliat  you  are,  what  you  affirm  of 
yourself:  Quid  dicis  de  teipso? 

And  it  is  not  a  slight  thing,  gentlemen,  to 
force  a  man  to  say  what  he  is,  or  what  he  believes 
himself  to  be;  for  that  supreme  word  of  man, 
that  single  expression  which  he  utters  of  and 
upon  himself  is  decisive.  It  lays  down  the  basis 
upon  which  all  judgment  of  him  is  to  be  formed. 
From  that  moment  all  the  acts  of  his  life  must 
correspond  to  the  answer  given  by  him  to  the 
question :  Quid  dicis  de  teipso  ?  And  therefore 
Jesus  Christ,  appearing  amongst  men  to  bring 
them  new  laws,  a  new  order  of  things,  had  to 
submit  to  that  necessity  of  declaring  what  he 
was,  and  therewith  to  undergo  the  unfailing  test 
to  which  it  subjected  him.  It  was  to  his  friends 
and  disciples  that  he  had  first  to  declare  himself, 
by  telling  them  what  he  thought  of  himself. 
What  said  he  to  them  ? 

One  day,  at  Cesarsea  Philippi,  he  asked  his 
disciples :  "  Whom  do  men  say  that  I,  the  Son 
of  man,  am  ?  And  they  said,  some  say,  John  the 
Baptist,  others  Elias,  others  Jeremias,  or  one  of 
the  prophets.  Jesus  saith  to  them :  But  whom 
say  ye  that  I  am  ?  Simon  Peter  answered,  and 
said  :   Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living 


17 


God."  Jesus  Clirist,  so  far  from  rejecting  these 
words  as  blasphemous,  accepted  them  as  express- 
ing a  truth  which  filled  him  with  delight,  and  he 
said  to  Peter :  "  Blessed  art  thou,  Simon  Barjona, 
for  flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  to  thee, 
but  my  Father  who  is  in  heaven."  And  he  then 
added,  as  a  reward  for  the  faith  of  his  disciple : 
''  And  I  say  unto  thee,  that  thou  art  Peter,  and 
upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  Church  ;  and  the 
gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it." ' 

Jesus  Christ  then  presented  himself  to  his  dis- 
ciples as  the  Son  of  God — not  as  the  Son  of  God 
in  the  sense  in  which  we  are  all  sons  of  God,  but 
as  the  Son  of  God  in  its  true  and  proper  sense : 
had  it  been  otherwise,  he  would  not  in  so  marked 
a  manner  have  manifested  to  his  apostle  the  joy 
he  felt  at  his  confession.  Moreover,  on  other 
occasions  he  sp«,ke,  if  possible,  more  clearly  to 
them.  Philip  said  to  him  :  "  Lord,  show  us  the 
Father,  and  it  is  enough  for  us."  Jesus  Christ 
grew  indignant  at  his  demand,  and  said  to  him : 
"  So  long  a  time  have  I  been  with  you,  and  you 
have  not  known  me  ?  Philip,  he  that  seeth  me, 
seeth  the  Father  also.  How  sayest  thou,  show 
us  the  Father?     Believe  you  not  that  I  am  in 

I  St.  Matt.  xvi.  lS-18. 


18 


the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  me  ? "  '  And,  at 
another  time,  manifesting  his  divine  filiation  yet 
more  clearly,  he  said  to  one  of  his  disciples  who 
still  wavered :  "  God  so  loved  the  world  as  to 

give  his  only-begotten  Son He  that  be- 

lieveth  in  him  is  not  judged;  but  he  that  doth 
not  believe  is  already  judged,  because  he  be- 
lieveth  not  in  the  name  of  the  only-begotten  Son 
of  God." '  Jesus  Christ  stood  forth  then  as  the 
Son  of  God  without  equal  or  rival,  and  in  so 
strict  a  sense,  that  he  was  in  his  Father  and  his 
Father  in  him,  and  that  to  see  him  was  to  see  his 
Father. 

So  much  for  friends  and  disciples.  But,  besides 
friends  and  disciples,  there  is  another  tribunal 
before  which  every  new  doctrine  must  appear, 
namely,  the  tribunal  of  the  people.  After  hav- 
ing spoken  in  secret  to  the  chosen  ones,  it  becomes 
needful  to  quit  the  chamber,  to  appear  in  public, 
to  speak  to  mankind  of  all  ages  and  conditions, 
to  those  who  have  not  leaned  upon  the  bosom 
of  the  Master,  who  have  not  received  the  educa- 
tion of  friendship,  who  know  not  what  is  re- 
quired of  them,  who  oppose  to  the  word  of  doc 
trine  a  host  of  passions  blended  with  as  many 

»  St.  John  XIV.  8-10.  » Ibid  iii.  16,  18. 


19 


prejudices.  Jesus  Clirist  did  this;  lie  heard  the 
murmurs  of  the  crowd  around  him,  and  was  un- 
daunted before  the  account  which  he  had  to  give 
them  of  himself.  "  How  long,"  cried  they  to  him, 
"  dost  thou  hold  us  in  suspense  ?  If  thou  be  the 
Christ,  tell  us  plainly.  Jesus  Christ  answered 
them :  I  speak  to  you,  and  you  believe  not ;  the 
works  that  I  do  in  the  name  of  my  Father,  they 
give  testimony  of  me."  *  "  I  and  the  Father  are 
one." '  At  that  saying,  which  expressed  all,  the 
Jews  took  up  stones  to  stone  him,  and  Jesus 
said  to  them  :  "  Many  good  works  I  have  showed 
you  from  my  Father ;  for  which  of  these  works 
do  you  stone  me?  The  Jews  answered  him: 
For  a  good  work  we  stone  thee  not,  but  for 
blasphemy;  and  because  that  thou, being  a  man, 
makest  thyself  God."  '  The  language  which 
Jesus  Christ  held  towards  the  people  in  order  to 
make  known  to  them  the  orio-in  and  mission  of 
their  new  spiritual  master,  was,  then,  language 
free  from  all  consti'aint  and  obscurity.  He  fear- 
lessly uttered  to  them  that  terrible  phrase:  "I 
and  my  Father  are  one" — Ego  et  Pater  unum 

SUMUS. 

But   above   the  people — that   confused   mass 

1  St.  John  X.  34,  25.  "  Ibid.  30.  'Ibid.  32,  S3. 


20 


wliose  voice  is  at  tlie  same  time  the  voice  of  God 
and  tlie  voice  of  notliingness ;  above  tlie  people 
— wlio  form  at  tlie  same  time  tlie  highest  and  the 
lowest  authority — rises,  with  calm  vigilance  and 
self-respect,  the  highest  representation  of  right 
and  truth.  Every  nation  possesses  a  supreme 
magistracy  which  concentrates  in  itself  the  glory 
and  enlightenment  of  the  country,  and  before  it 
every  doctrine  claiming  to  rule,  either  by  doing 
apparent  or  real  violence  to  received  traditions, 
must  at  last  appear.  Jesus  Christ  could  not 
escape  from  this  general  law  of  the  human  order. 
He  is  called  before  the  council  of  the  elders,  the 
priests,  and  the  princes  of  Judea.  After  hearing 
evidence  more  or  less  inconsistent,  the  high  priest 
at  length  resolves  to  place  the  question  in  its 
true  light:  he  stands  up  and  addresses  this 
solemn  charge  to  the  accused :  "  I  adjure  thee 
by  the  living  God,  that  thou  tell  us  if  thou  be 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God."  '  Jesus  Christ  calmly 
replies  in  two  words :  Ego  sum — "  I  am ! "  And 
he  immediately  adds,  in  order  to  confirm  his 
avowal  by  the  majesty  of  his  language  :  "I  am; 
and  you  shall  see  the  Son  of  man  sitting  on  the 
right  hand   of  the  power  of  God,  and  coming 

1  St.  Matt.  xsvi.  63. 


21 


witli  tlie  clouds  of  heaven. " '  Then  the  hio-h 
i:)riest  rends  his  garments.  "  What  need  we  any 
further  witnesses  ? " — he  exclaims — "  You  have 
heard  the  blasphemy.  What  think  you?"  ' 
And  they  all  condemn  him,  as  guilty,  to  death. 
He  is  then  brought  before  the  Roman  governor, 
who,  not  finding  good  reasons  for  his  condemna- 
tion, wishes  to  release  him ;  but  the  princes  of  the 
people  persist :  "  We  have  a  law,"  say  they,  "  and 
by  that  law  he  ought  to  die,  because  he  made 
himself  the  Son  of  God."  '  Pilate  so  fully  com- 
prehends this,  that  his  Roman,  and  therefore  reli- 
gious, ear  is  all  attention ;  he  draws  Jesus  Christ 
aside,  and  timorously  asks  him  whence  he  is: 
Unde  es  tu  ?  *  Jesus  Christ  is  silent ;  he  confirms 
by  his  silence  all  that  he  is  accused  of  having 
said  of  himself,  and  what,  in  fact,  he  has  said. 
The  people  who  witness  his  crucifixion  under- 
stand his  condemnation  in  the  sense  in  which 
it  was  pronounced  ;  they  insult  him  even  in 
death  by  these  expressive  derisions :  "  Vah,  thou 
that  destroyest  the  temple,  and  in  three  days 
dost  rebuild  it,  save  thy  own  self;  if  thou  be  the 
Son  of  God,  come  down  from  the  cross." '     And, 


>  St.  Mark  xiv.  63.  » Ibid.  63,  64. 

3  St.  John  xix.  7.  *  Ibid.  9.  '  St.  Matt,  xxvii.  40. 


22 


when  darkness  covers  tlie  earth,  when  the  rocks 
are  broken  in  pieces,  when  the  veil  of  the  temple 
is  rent  in  twain,  and  all  Nature  proclaims  to 
mankind  that  a  great  event  is  in  action,  the  look- 
ers on  and  the  Roman  centurion  strike  their 
breasts,  saying :  "  Indeed,  this  was  the  Son  of 
God  !  "  '  And  the  apostle  St.  John  concludes  his 
gospel  in  these  words :  "  These  things  are  written 
that  you  may  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  was  the 
Son  of  God." ' 

Thus,  before  his  friends,  before  the  people,  be- 
fore the  magistracy,  in  his  life,  in  his  death,  J^sus 
Christ  everywhere  declares  that  he  is  the  Son  of 
God,  the  only  Son,  a  Son  equal  with  his  Father, 
one  with  his  Father,  being  in  his  Father,  and  his 
Father  in  him.  This  is  the  testimony  which  he 
renders  of  himself,  his  answer  to  that  imj^erious 
question :  Quid  dicis  de  teipso  ?  And  what  an 
answer,  gentlemen !  What !  a  man,  a  creature 
of  flesh  and  blood,  who  has  before  him  not  only 
the  weaknesses  of  life,  but  those  also  of  death ; 
a  man  !  and  he  dares  to  call  himself  God  !  It  is 
the  first  time  in  all  history.  No  historical  per- 
sonage, before  or  since,  has  set  himself  up  as  God. 
Idolatry  had   numberless   gods;    but   it  had  a 

»  St.  Matt,  xxvii.  54.  «  St.  John  xx.  31. 


23 

suj^reme  God,  to  wliom  none  otlier  was  equal; 
and  wlien  the  most  shameful  flattery  decreed 
apotheosis  to  emperors  convicted  of  every  crime 
by  their  lives  and  of  complete  nothingness  by 
their  death,  none  saw  in  the  incense  offered  to 
their  ashes  anything  but  a  poetical  figure,  a  last 
act  of  adulation  rendered  by  bondage  to  tyranny. 
Mahomet,  come  to  replace  the  reign  of  idols,  did 
not  call  himself  God,  but  a  simple  envo}^  of  God. 
And  if  we  would  go  back  beyond  idolatry  in 
search  of  the  most  arrogant  impostures,  we  shall 
find  even  in  the  heart  of  India  nothing  but  nar- 
rations without  consistency,  ages  without  date, 
a  shapeless  abyss,  in  which  our  vision  will  be 
totally  unable  to  discover  any  authentic  mortal 
bold  enough  to  declare  that  he  was  God,  formally 
and  distinctly,  by  these  two  inefiable  words :  Ego 
SUM.  Man  is  not  capable  of  uttering  so  bold  a 
falsehood,  the  improbability  is  too  striking. 

It  is  also  and  too  manifestly  useless,  for  what 
would  it  profit  ?  What  end  could  it  serve  a  man 
to  call  himself  God  ?  Would  he  establish  laws, 
found  an  empire  ?  It  is  a  human  ambition,  and 
I  can  well  understand  why  he  would  not  call 
himself  a  philosopher,  since  any  one  versed  m 
history  knows  that  whoever  sets  himself  up  as 


24 


a  philosopher  is  sure  to  remain  alone  upon  his 
pedestal.  A  man,  then,  having  great  ambition 
would  never  advance  such  pretensions.  God  is 
the  corner-stone  of  every  lasting  edifice.  His 
name,  even  when  invoked  by  imposture,  serves 
as  a  solid  cement ;  and  it  was  natural  that  before 
and  after  others  Jesus  Christ  should  call  himself 
the  envoy  of  God.  Men  have  often  accepted  that 
idea ;  they  readily  believe  in  the  intervention  of 
the  Divinity  in  human  affairs,  and  their  faith, 
thus  deceived  in  its  application,  is  never  deceived 
as  to  the  reality  of  a  Providence  eternally  watch- 
ful over  their  condition.  Jesus  Christ  in  calling 
himself  the  man  of  God  would  have  proclaimed 
something  probable  and  serviceable ;  but  the 
very  title  of  God,  the  apotheosis  of  himself  by 
himself,  added  nothing  but  difficulties  to  his  en- 
terprise. Thenceforth  it  became  necessary  that 
in  all  his  actions  he  should  sustain  the  part  of 
the  infinite,  that  even  in  his  death  he  should 
maintain  proofs  of  his  divine  nature,  and  that  his 
tomb  as  well  as  eternity  should  bear  witness  for 
him.     Was  this  humanly  possible  ? 

Add  thereto  a  third  consideration  relative  to 
the  state  of  religious  belief  among  the  Jews. 
That  people  had  in  their  law  only  one  explicit 


25 


dogma — all  the  others,  although  they  possessed 
them  in  their  traditions,  were,  so  to  say,  veiled 
and  obscure.  The  unity  of  God,  graven  at  the 
head  of  the  tables  of  Sinai,  was  their  chief  dogma 
the  one  that  recalled  and  included  all  the  others 
such  as  the  creation,  the  fall  of  man,  the  immor 
tality  of  the  soul.  To  attack  this,  even  remotely 
was  to  attack  Moses,  Sinai,  all  the  treasured  me 
morials  of  the  children  of  Israel,  all  their  customs 
every  object  of  their  veneration.  Now  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God,  even  without 
destroying  the  divine  unity,  did  not  enter  natur- 
ally into  the  ears  of  this  people,  accustomed  by 
their  lawgiver  and  their  prophets  to  know  only 
the  God  who  had  brought  them  out  of  the  land 
of  Egyyt,  and  who  had  so  often  said  to  them : 
**I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  thou  shalt  have  no 
other  gods  before  me."  ' 

If,  then,  Jesus  Christ  falsely  called  himself 
God,  he  needlessly  created  for  himself  unaccount- 
able difficulties. 

But  let  us  pass  on  from  these  preliminary  re- 
flections, and  see  what  account  we  have  to  render 
of  the  life  we  are  contemplating.  Whatever 
motives   Jesus  Christ  might   have  had  against 

»  Exodus  XX.  2,  3. 


26 


calling  himself  God,  he  did  call  himself  God; 
such  is  the  fact.     Before  we  examine  whether 
what  he  said  was  true,  an  intervening  question 
arises ;  we  have  to  learn  whether  in  calling  him- 
self God  he  believed  what  he  said.     Between  the 
affirmation  and  the  reality,  between  saying  I  am 
God,  and  being  God,  stands  the  question  of  good 
faith  and  sincerity.     Did  Jesus  Christ  believe  in 
his  divinity  ?     Was  he  convinced  of  the  truth  of 
that  vital  dogma  which  he  laid  down  as  the 
basis  of  his  teaching  and  for  which   he  died? 
Was  he  sincere,  or — pardon  the  expression — was 
he   an   impostor?      We  cannot  advance  a  step 
further  in  his  life  before  we  solve  this  doubt. 
All  mankind,  without  distinction  of  time,  place, 
nations,  laws,  or  religions,  is  divided  into  two 
ranks,  the  rank  of  impostors  and  that  of  sincere 
men,  in  these  each  individual   marks   his   own 
place.      The  impostors  have  too  often  led  the 
sincere,  but  their  reign  sooner  or  later  betrays 
itself;  and  sincerity  in  regard  to  man  is  a  require- 
ment which  honors  him ;  to  error,  an  aroma  which 
renders  it  less  bitter ;  to  truth,  a  crown  which  is 
the  first  object  of  our  search.     Let  us  then  first 
of  all   learn   whether   Jesus    Christ  wears   this 
crown,  whether  he  is  anointed  with  this  aroma, 


27 


whetlier  lie  possesses  tliis  honor,  without  which 
there  is  no  honor.  What  think  you  ?  Must  we 
place  him  with  the  impostors  or  with  the  sincere  ? 
Was  he  of  those  who  have  covered  their  ambi- 
tion with  the  veil  of  hypocritical  sanctity,  or  of 
those  who  have  preferred  the  honor  of  irreproach- 
able language  even  to  success,  and  who  have 
chosen  for  their  device  the  motto  of  the  Macca- 
bees :     MOEIAMUR    IN"    SIMPLICITATE    NOSTRA  ? Let 

us  die  in  our  simplicity. 

This  is  the  great  question. 

It  is  answered  by  the  character  of  the  man, 
and  hence  I  may  conclude  that  the  cause  is  judged 
in  favor  of  Jesus  Christ ;  for  no  more  venerable 
form  has  dawned  upon  the  horizon  of  history. 
The  simple  course  of  time  has  placed  him  above 
all,  leaving  nothing  visible  that  can  approach  it. 
By  the  consent  of  all — even  of  those  who  do  not 
believe  in  him — Jesus  Christ  is  a  good  man,  a 
sage,  an  elect,  an  incomparable  personage, ,  ,  He 
has  done  such  great,  such  holy  things,  that  even 
his  enemies  j^ay  constant  homage  to  his  work 
and  to  his  person. 

It  is  true  that  in  the  last  century  there  was  a 
man  who  chose  for  his  motto — designating  Jesus 
Christ — ^the  words :  Ecmsez  Vinfame  ! — Crush  the 


28 


wretch !  But  this  phrase,  gentlemen,  had  not 
strength  enough  to  pass  the  bounds  of  the  century 
in  which  it  was  uttered,  it  halted  trembling  on 
the  frontiers  of  oui'  own  ;  and  since  then  no  human 
voice,  even  among  those  which  are  not  respected, 
has  dared  to  repeat  that  signal  of  impious  revolt. 
It  has  fallen  back  upon  the  tomb  of  him  who 
first  uttered  it,  and  there,  after  having  been 
judged  by  the  posterity  which  has  already  fol- 
lowed, it  awaits  the  still  more  stern  judgment  of 
posterity  yet  to  come. 

I  may,  then,  stop  here,  since  nothing  is  higher 
than  a  universal  judgment,  and  since  all  demon- 
stration appears  weak  before  a  conclusion  which 
forms  part  of  the  common  sense  of  mankind. 
But  I  wish  to  afford  you  the  gratification  of  an- 
alyzing the  character  of  Christ,  and  of  examining 
by  what  harmony  of  moral  beauties  that  physi- 
ognomy infinitely  surpasses  the  most  illustrious 
forms  which  time  has  produced. 

The  human  character  is  composed  of  three  ele- 
ments, namely,  the  intelligence — the  seat  of  its 
thoughts ;  the  heart — the  seat  of  its  feelings ;  the 
will — the  seat  of  its  resolutions.  It  is  the  fusion 
of  these  three  elements  which,  by  its  measure, 
determines  every  moral  type  and  fixes  its  value. 


29 


We  have  no  need  to  seek  elsewhere  the  secret 
of  that  jierfection  which  we  find  in  the  hero  of 
the  GospeL  Doubtless,  for  those  who  believe, 
him  to  be  God,  his  divinity  supports  and  shines 
through  the  whole  visible  tissue;  but  without 
changing  anything  of  the  nature  of  the  soul  any 
more  than  of  the  body.  Jesus  Christ  has  nothing 
in  himself  to  constitute  his  physiognomy  but 
thoughts,  feelings  and  resolutions ;  but  the  har- 
mony and  blending  of  these  form  that  peculiar 
charm  which  it  is  now  our  purpose  to  examine. 

I  shall  not  mislead  you,  gentlemen,  in  saying 
of  his  intelligence  that  in  character  and  sign  it 
possesses  that  which  we  call  the  sublime.  The 
sublime  is  elevation,  profundity  and  simplicity 
blended  together  in  a  single  trait.  When  the 
aged  Horace  was  told  that  his  son  had  fled  from 
the  combat  which  decided  the  supremacy  between 
Alba  and  Rome,  and,  seeing  his  indignation,  they 
asked  him  what  his  son  should  have  done  against 
three,  the  old  man  replied:  "He  should  have 
died  ! "  This  is  a  sublime  exclamation ;  it  is  the 
cry  of  duty  springing  at  once  from  a  great  soul, 
and  bearino^  us  in  a  moment  above  all  the  weak- 
nesses  which  plead  within  us  against  self-sacrifice. 
Nothing  is  more  simple,  but  nothing  is  higher 


30 


or  more  profound,  God  lias  given  to  man  the 
faculty  of  reaching  the  sublime  in  his  actions 
and  in  his  writings ;  but  these  occasions  are  rare 
and  fugitive.  The  greatest  men  have  been  sub- 
lime four  or  five  times  in  their  lives ;  such  was 
Csesar  saying  to  a  boatman  who  brought  him 
through  a  tem23est :  "  What  fearest  thou  ?  Thou 
earnest  Caesar !  "  Simplicity  is  too  often  wanting 
to  the  greatest  actions,  or,  when  they  are  simple, 
they  do  not  raise  us  sufficiently  out  of  ourselves, 
or  they  are  not  profound  enough  to  give  us  suffi- 
cient food  for  thouo-ht.  It  is  the  same  with 
our  writings.  It  is  not  rare  to  find  in  them 
harmony,  grace,  beauty,  and,  as  it  were,  a  flow- 
ing stream  which  bears  us  along  between  sweet 
and  flowery  banks.  We  are  thus  carried  on 
through  whole  pages.  Suddenly,  and  as  by 
chance,  a  powerful  emotion  seizes  upon  us,  and 
seems  to  pierce  even  to  our  soul.  The  sublime 
has  appeared.  But  it  is  only  an  apparition ;  and 
this  is  why  it  draws  us  out  of  our  natural  state, 
by  producing  within  us  a  sudden  and  passing 
shock. 

It  is  not  so  in  regard  to  Jesus  Christ.  His 
actions  and  his  language  are  stamped  with  a 
continuous  elevation,  profundity  and  simplicity. 


31 


so  tliat  tlie  sublime  is,  as  it  were,  naturalized  in 
them,  and  no  longer  excites  our  wonder ;  never 
theless,  its  empire  over  the  soul  is  undiminished. 
For  this  reason,  after  so  many  famous  master- 
pieces of  literature,  the  Gospel  has  remained 
a  unique  book  in  the  world — a  book  acknowl- 
edged to  be  above  all  imitation.  "  Blessed,  are 
the  poor  in  spirit," '  said  Jesus  Christ.  What 
can  be  more  simple?  And  yet  how  sudden  it 
bears  us  away  from  earth !  The  angel  who 
seized  Habakkuk  and  carried  him  from  his  fields 
to  Babylon  was  not  more  raj^id.  Three  simple 
words  suffice  to  change  all  our  notions  of  beati- 
tude, of  the  value  of  earthly  things,  of  the 
object  and  end  of  life — to  bear  us  above  worldly 
cupidity,  and  cause  us  to  hover  joyfully,  like 
the  eagle,  above  the  kingdoms  of  the  world. 
"  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit !  "  These  words 
will  resound  throughout  the  world ;  the  soul, 
having  once  heard  them,  will  constantly  recall 
them,  and  never  fail  to  find  hidden  in  them  a 
powerful  hand,  ready  to  its  rescue.  Meditation, 
in  sounding  their  depths,  will  open  treasures 
of  profundity,  a  new  social  economy  destined  to 
change   the   relations   of  men  with  each  other, 

1  St.  Matt.  V.  3. 


32 


ennoble  labor  and  suffering,  abolish  slavery,  and 
make  a  beneficial  and  lioly  profession  even  of 
poverty.  Such  is  the  Gospel — that  is  to  say, 
Jesus  Christ,  from  beginning  to  end ;  and  that 
sovereign  intelligence  cannot  be  better  defined 
than  by  saying  that  it  had  received  from  God 
the  gift  of  continuous  sublimity. 

Great  minds  generally  exhaust  their  whole 
power  in  their  thoughts,  and  are  unable  to  impart 
more  than  a  feeble  and  secondary  action  to  their 
hearts.  This  is  especially  remarkable  in  founders 
of  empires  and  doctrines — cold,  haughty  men, 
masters  of  themselves,  looking  down  upon  man- 
kind and  urging  them  to  and  fro  in  their  hidden 
designs,  as  the  wind  waves  a  field  of  corn,  ripe 
and  ready  for  the  sickle.  The  conception  of  their 
plans  absorbs  them;  success  corrupts  them  by 
flattering  their  pride;  reverse  sours  them,  and 
all  things  combine  to  make  them  scornful  of 
mankind,  which  is  for  them  only  as  a  pedestal, 
erect  or  overthrown.  Even  if  they  do  not  fall  so 
ow  in  the  degradation  of  the  heart,  they  are  not 
permitted  to  raise  their  faculty  of  loving  as  high 
as  their  faculty  of  thought.  The  piercing  glance 
of  the  eagle  is  not  naturally  given  to  the  eye  of 
the  dove.    These  distinctions  are  perceptible  even 


33 


in  authors.  Racine — j^^^'^^^^  these  comparisons 
— is  tender ;  Corneille  is  much  less  so,  because 
his  genius  draws  nearer  to  the  sublime.  We 
feel  in  him  something  heroic  and  austere,  like 
those  Romans  of  whom  he  said — 

"  Et  je  rends  grace  au  ciel  de  n'etre  pas  Romain 
Pour  conserver  encor  quelque  chose  d'humain." 

Now,  Jesus  Christ,  under  this  head,  is  an 
ever-memorable  exception,  and  far  above  success- 
ful imitation,  even  by  those  who  adopt  him  as 
the  master  of  their  souls.  He  carried  the  power 
of  loving  even  to  tenderness,  and  to  a  kind  of 
tenderness  so  new  that  it  was  needful  to  create 
a  name  for  it,  and  that  it  should  form  a  distinct 
species  in  the  analysis  of  human  feelings — I 
mean  the  evangelic  unction.  Jesus  Christ  was 
tender  towards  all  men  ;  it  was  he  who  said  of 
them  :  "  Whatsoever  you  shall  do  to  the  least  of 
these  my  brethren,  you  will  have  done  it  unto 
me ; "  '  an  expression  which  introduced  Christian 
fraternity  into  the  world,  and  which  still  daily 
engenders  love.  He  was  tender  towards  sinners ; 
he  sat  at  meat  with  them,  and,  when  doctrinal 
pride  reproached  him  for  it,  he  replied :  "  I  am 
not  come  for  those  that  are  in   health,  but  for 

1  St.  Matt.  XXV.  40. 
2* 


34 


those  that  are  sick."  '  Perceiving  a  publicau  who 
has  climbed  up  into  a  tree  to  see  him  pass  by,  he 
says  to  him,  "  Zaccheus,  make  haste  and  come 
down,  for  this  day  I  must  abide  in  thy  house."  * 
A  sinful  woman  approaches  him,  and  ventures 
even  to  anoint  his  feet  with  ointment,  to  the 
great  scandal  of  a  large  assembly ;  he  reassures 
her  by  that  immortal  allocution :  "  Her  sins, 
which  are  many,  are  forgiven,  because  she  has 
loved  much."  '  They  bring  before  him  a  woman 
taken  in  adultery,  in  order  to  force  a  judgment 
from  him,  which  by  its  very  leniency  may  com- 
promise him  ;  he  answers :  "  He  that  is  without 
sin  among  you,  let  him  cast  the  first  stone  at  her."  * 
He  was  tender  towards  his  ungrateful  and  parri- 
cidal country ;  and,  beholding  its  walls  from  afar, 
he  wept,  saying :  "  Jerusalem  !  Jerusalem  !  thou 
that  killest  the  prophets,  and  stonest  them  that 
are  sent  unto  thee,  how  often  would  I  have  gath- 
ered together  thy  children,  as  the  hen  doth  gather 
her  chickens  under  her  wings,  and  thou  wouldest 
not !  "  ^  He  was  so  tender  towards  his  friends  as 
to  wash  their  feet,  and  to  permit  a  very  young 
man  to  lean  upon  his  breast  on  one  of  the  most 


»  St.  Matt.  ix.  12.  =  St.  Luke  xix.  5.  '  Ibid.  vii.  47. 

*  St.  John  Tiii.  7.  ^  gt.  Matt,  xxiii.  37. 


35 


solemn  occasions  of  liis  life.  Even  at  his  crnci- 
fixion  lie  was  tender  towards  liis  executioners, 
and,  lifting  up  his  soul  to  liis  Father  for  them, 
he  said :  "  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know 
not  what  they  they  do." '  No  earthly  life  shows 
such  a  blending  of  light  and  love.  Every  word 
of  Jesus  Christ  is  an  expression  of  tenderness  and 
a  sublime  revelation ;  at  the  same  moment  when 
he  opens  the  infinite  to  us  by  his  look,  he  folds 
us  in  his  arms  and  presses  us  upon  his  bosom. 
We  soar  away  in  thought,  and  are  retained  by 
love. 

And  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  tender- 
ness of  Jesus  Christ,  although  boundless,  is  of 
spotless  virginity.  It  is  difficult  for  those  who 
have  received  a  soul  apt  for  love  to  hold  that 
precious  gift  within  chaste  limits ;  it  is  the  object 
of  a  supreme  struggle,  in  which  one  may  be 
sometimes  tempted  to  regret  the  gift,  or  to  desire 
more  liberty  in  its  use.  Jesus  Christ  seems  to 
know  nothing  of  this,  he  bears  his  love  in  a  vase 
so  pure,  that  the  shadow  even  of  doubt  does  not 
approach  his  heart,  and  posterity,  which  for 
eighteen  centuries,  has  sought  for  faults  in  him, 
has  never   dared   to   utter  a  word  of  suspicion 

>  St.  Luke  xxiii.  34. 


36 


asrainst  his  virtue.     The  character  of  his  tender- 
ness  is  that  of  ineffable  chastity. 

There  remains  yet  one  thing,  gentlemen,  to 
complete  our  estimation  of  the  character  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  to  enable  us  to  judge,  by  his  charac- 
ter, of  his  sincerity.  A  sublime  intelligence,  a 
tender  heart,  do  not  suffice  to  form  a  will  capable 
of  great  resolutions.  The  will  is  a  distinct  world, 
where,  notwithstanding  our  views  and  our  feel- 
ings, the  helm  is  too  often  guided  by  a  feeble 
hand.  The  character  of  Jesus  Christ  on  this 
head  is  that  of  absolute  certainty  of  himself. 
None  ever  ventured  uj)on  a  more  difficult  design ; 
he  claimed  to  be  acknowledged  as  God,  loved  as 
God,  served  as  God,  adored  as  God;  it  would 
seem  that  the  will  should  sometimes  have 
yielded  under  so  heavy  a  load,  and  that  at  least 
Jesus  Christ  should  have  employed  all  the  hu- 
man means  capable  of  insuring  the  success  of 
such  gigantic  ambition.  It  is  not  so,  gentlemen  ; 
Jesus  Christ  despised  all  human  means,  or  rather 
he  abstained  from  employing  any. 

Politics  rank  among  the  highest  of  these.  It 
is  the  art  of  seizing  the  tendency  of  minds  at  a 
given  moment,  of  bringing  together  opinions  and 
interests  which  seek  to  be  satisfied,  of  antici- 


37 


pating  tlie  will  of  a  people  before  tliey  have  a 
clear  consciousness  of  it  themselves ;  of  assuming, 
by  the  help  of  circumstances,  the  post  of  their 
natural  representative,  and  of  placing  them  upon 
a  course  in  which  we  shall  be  borne  along  with 
them  for  half  a  century.  Such  is  the  art  of  poli- 
tics— an  illustrious  art,  which  may  be  used  for 
good  or  evil,  and  which  is  the  source  of  prosper- 
ous and  lamentable  vicissitudes  among  nations. 
Jesus  Christ  was  admirably  placed  for  becoming 
the  instrument  of  a  revolution  favorable  to  his 
religious  designs.  The  people  from  whom  he  had 
sprung  had  lost,  under  the  Roman  yoke,  the 
remains  of  their  ancient  nationality;  hatred  of 
Rome  was  then  at  its  height  among  them,  and, 
in  the  deserts  and  mountains  of  Judea,  bands  of 
liberators  were  daily  formed  under  the  command 
of  some  patriot,  distinguished  for  his  boldness 
or  some  other  characteristic.  These  movements 
were  seconded  by  celebrated  prophecies,  which 
had  long  announced  a  chief  and  a  saviour  to  the 
Jewish  people.  The  relation  of  these  ideas  and 
interests  to  the  new  kingdom,  the  coming  of 
which  Jesus  Christ  proclaimed,  was  evident. 
Nevertheless,  so  far  from  conniving  at  and  em- 
ploying them,  he  trampled  them  under  foot.     In 


38 


order  to  prove  him,  he  is  asked  whether  it  is 
needful  to  pay  tribute  to  Cgesar;  he  calls  for  a 
piece  of  money,  and,  on  being  told  Avhose  image 
and  superscription  it  bears,  he  calmly  replies: 
''  Render  then  to  Caesar  that  which  is  Caesar's, 
and  to  God  that  which  is  God's."  '  He  goes  still 
further.  He  announces  the  temporal  ruin  of  his 
nation,  he  speaks  against  the  temple — the  object 
of  religious  and  patriotic  veneration  among  the 
Jews — and  he  openly  predicts  that  there  shall 
not  remain  of  it  one  stone  upon  another;  there- 
fore this  charge  was  numbered  amongst  the  accu- 
sations brought  against  him  before  the  supreme 
magistracy. 

His  doctrine,  so  favorable  to  the  people  and  to 
the  poor,  was  of  a  nature  to  obtain  great  popu- 
larity for  him  :  this  is  a  powerful  mainspring  for 
revolutions.  In  fact,  he  gained  such  an  ascen- 
dency over  the  people  that  they  wished  to  elect 
him  King  of  Israel ;  but  he  fled  in  order  to  avoid 
that  honor,  and  broke  with  his  own  hands  an 
instrument  which  great  men  would  commonly 
have  valued  as  a  gift  and  a  sign  from  heaven. 

Next  to  the  art  of  politics  comes  power,  one  of 
its  adjuncts,  but  which  may  be  considered  with 

»  St.  Matt.  xsii.  31. 


39 


out  reference  to  the  causes  that  generally  com- 
municate it.  Jesus  Christ  had  nothing  so  much 
at  heart  as  to  prevent  his  disciples  from  trusting 
to  power  and  from  exercising  it.  He  sends  them 
forth,  he  says,  like  lambs;  he  announces  to  them 
all  kinds  of  troubles,  without  giving  them  any 
other  help  than  patience,  meekness  and  humility. 
K,  unmindful  of  his  lessons,  they  would  call 
down  fire  from  heaven,  he  reproaches  them  with 
not  yet  knowing  "  of  what  spirit  they  are."  '  At 
the  moment  of  his  arrest,  when  he  might  have 
defended  himself,  and  an  apostle  drew  the  sword, 
Jesus  Christ  says  to  him:  "Put  up  thy  sword 
again  into  its  sheath,  for  they  who  draw  the 
sword  shall  perish  by  the  sword. "  "  Whilst  the 
authors  of  other  doctrines  seek  a  sanction  from 
victory — rashly  forgetting  that  victory  is  variable 
and  conscience  immutable — Jesus  Christ  chooses 
the  cross  for  his  standard,  and  protests  against 
all  triumph  of  power  by  the  triumph  of  his  cru- 
cifixion. 

He  also  despises  science  and  philosophy — 
those  nobler  and  truer  means  of  imparting  con- 
viction. He  surrounds  himself  w4th  fishermen 
instead  of  savants,  and,  avoiding  even  the  appear- 

1  St.  Luke  ix.  55.  «  St.  John  xviii.  11. 


40 


ance  of  a  scientific  and  pliilosophical  organization 
of  liis  doctrine,  he  teaches  it  by  parables  and 
detached  sentences.  He  leaves  to  his  disciples 
and  to  his  church  the  future  charge  of  blending 
reasoning  with  them,  and  of  ranging  the  whole 
in  order. 

In  fine,  the  most  ordinary  skill  seems  to  be 
unknown  to  him  ;  he  makes  of  his  death — of  the 
time  when  he  should  have  received  therefrom  so 
terrible  a  check  to  his  divinity,  and  when  he 
would  no  longer  be  present  to  sustain  his  fol- 
lowers— he  makes,  I  say,  of  his  death  a  snare  for 
the  faith  of  his  disciples,  in  promising  them  to 
rise  from  the  dead,  and  in  leaving  the  confir- 
mation of  his  whole  life  to  that  test,  which,  if  he 
were  not  God,  could  result  only  in  a  base  fraud, 
or  a  flagrant  contradiction. 

I  know  no  other  human  means,  gentlemen,  of 
founding  anything  here  below,  than  those  I  have 
just  cited,  namely,  politics,  power,  science,  phi- 
losophy, skill.  Jesus  Christ  abstained  from  em- 
ploying any  of  these,  and  yet,  confidence  in 
himself,  absolute  certainty  of  himself,  never  failed 
him  for  a  single  hour  or  a  single  moment.  This 
very  forbearing  to  employ  any  human  means 
proves  to  the  highest  evidence  his  inflexible  reso 


41 


lution,  and  the  omnipotent  energy  of  liis  will. 
Nevertheless,  nothing  can  be  accomplished  with- 
out means,  without  instruments.  What  means 
then — what  instruments  did  Jesus  Christ  em- 
ploy? Ah  !  gentlemen,  what  means?  Do  you 
not  see  what  means  ?  It  was  himself,  his  inner 
force,  the  converse  which  he  held  with  himself, 
the  sure  possession  of  his  essence.  Men  tremble 
because  they  see  themselves.  Jesus  Christ  did 
not  tremble  because  he  saw  himself.  He  knew 
that  his  very  word  was  "the  way,  the  truth,  and 
the  life ; " '  he  gave  it  to  all  who  came,  as  the 
husbandman  sows  corn ;  the  husbandman  has  no 
more  need  of  politics,  power,  science,  philosophy, 
or  skill;  he  has  the  corn,  the  earth,  and  the 
heavens,  he  opens  his  hand  and  casts  forth  life. 
And  whilst  human  politics  pursue  their  course, 
whilst  power  struggles  with  power,  whilst  science 
exhausts  science,  the  philosophy  of  to-day  buries 
the  philosophy  of  yesterday,  and  the  skilful  are 
taken  in  their  own  nets ;  the  wheat  fallen  from 
the  hand  of  God  into  the  hand  of  man,  and  from 
the  hand  of  man  into  the  bosom  of  the  earth, 
vegetates,  grows  up,  and  ripens;  it  is  gathered 
in,   eaten,  and   mankind   lives !     So   did   Jesus 

»  St.  John  xiv.  6. 


42 


Christ ;  so  does  every  one  who  believes  that  he 
holds  the  truth  from  God:  he  first  lives  by  it, 
then  he  sows  it,  and  the  world — "  which  is  the 
field  "  ' — the  world  lives  by  it  in  its  due  time. 

We  have  then  before  us,  gentlemen,  the  char- 
acter of  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  Grospel  shows  it  to 
us.  With  regard  to  his  intelligence — continuous 
sublimity  ;  with  regard  to  his  heart — chaste  and 
ineftable  tenderness;  with  regard  to  his  will — 
absolute  certainty  of  himself.  Now  this  char- 
acter is  incompatible  with  the  ignoble  vice  which 
I  no  longer  dare  even  to  name,  so  far  is  it  already 
removed  from  your  thoughts.  Jesus  Christ  was 
sincere  because  he  was  a  sublime  intelligence ; 
he  was  sincere  because  his  heart  was  open  to  men 
as  a  sanctuary  of  tenderness  and  chastity;  he 
was  sincere  because  he  possessed  absolute  cer- 
tainty of  himself,  because  he  had  faith  in  his 
doctrine,  because  he  believed  in  himself.  Jesus 
Christ,  like  the  Gospel — which  is  no  other  than 
himself — Jesus  Christ  was  sincerity  itself,  and  the 
invincible  charm  which  is  felt  in  contemplating 
and  in  listening  to  him  comes  from  the  inmost 
brightness  of  his  physiognomy,  by  which  he  is 
seen  from  without  wholly  as  he  is. 

»St.  Matt.  xiii.  38. 


43 


Granted,  say  you,  Jesus  Christ  was  sincere. 
What  then  ?  So  many  others  have  also  been  sin- 
cere !  Reflect  a  moment,  gentlemen ;  remember 
that  Jesus  Christ,  being  sincere,  believed  what 
he  said.  Now,  he  said  that  he  was  God ;  he  de- 
clared this  to  his  disciples,  to  his  friends,  to  the 
people,  to  the  supreme  magistracy  of  his  country ; 
he  was  condemned,  and  he  died  for  that  affir- 
mation ;  therefore  he  believed  that  he  was  God. 
But  he  could  not  believe  this  if  he  were  not  God, 
because  it  is  impossible  to  be  deceived  in  such  a 
matter  as  that  of  consciousness  of  one's  own  per- 
sonality, without  being  mad.  Now,  Jesus  Christ 
was  not  a  madman,  and  he  was  sincere :  then  he 
was  God.  Here,  by  an  exception  which  belongs 
to  the  very  nature  of  the  subject,  the  question 
of  sincerity  blends  with  the  question  of  reality. 
And  this  is  no  new  discovery,  no  vain  idea  of 
my  mind.  Through  ages  past,  gentlemen,  the 
Gospel,  in  proving  to  the  minds  of  its  attentive 
readers  the  sincerity  of  its  hero,  convinced  them 
of  his  divinity  without  any  other  argument. 
Whilst  the  Catholic  Church,  the  daughter  and 
spouse  of  Jesus  Christ,  demonstrates  the  divinity 
of  her  founder  by  the  divinity  of  her  own  charac- 
teristics, the  Gospel,  in  another  manner,  proves  to 


44 


the  children  of  the  Church  the  divinity  of  him 
who  founded  it.  And  this  impression  is  common 
to  different  ages — to  the  three  ages  of  man — so 
natural  is  it  and  so  based  upon  truth. 

At  the  age  of  twelve,  in  the  first  bloom  of  life, 
we  heard  the  Gospel  read,  we  heard  of  Jesus 
Christ;  his  works  appeared  to  us  most  simj^le, 
gentle  and  loving;  we  believed  in  them  in  the 
simplicity,  the  gentleness,  the  love  of  our  young 
souls.  But  that  first  impression  too  often  fades 
and  vanishes ;  reason  grows  strong  with  its  real 
rights;  outward  prejudices  penetrate  within  us ; 
inward  passions  are  drawn  forth  by  the  sun  of 
our  ripening  years,  and  Jesus  Christ  falls  grad- 
ually from  the  altar  whereupon  our  first  adora- 
tions had  placed  him.  This  time  has  its  day. 
Years  pass  over  our  bondage,  up  to  the  time 
when  reason,  become  more  personal  and  more 
j)owerful,  makes  us  ashamed  of  our  faith  in 
lessons  without  authority,  and  when  our  very 
passions,  enlightened  by  their  domination,  incite 
us  by  lassitude  to  instincts  of  governance,  of 
duty,  and  of  greater  self-respect.  This  time  is 
hallowed  amongst  all  others;  it  is  the  time  when 
Ave  enter  into  order  by  liberty  itself,  by  that 
divine  liberty  of  youth  which  Providence  has 


45 


prepared  for  us,  and  whicli  no  law  can  snatcli 
from  us.  If  the  Gospel  then  fall  into  our  hands, 
and  we  read  it  a  second  time,  Jesus  Christ  often 
touches  us  again,  and  with  a  mastery  which  we 
no  longer  contest,  because  we  yield  it  to  him  of 
ourselves  at  an  age  when  nothing  any  longer 
pleads  against  him  but  passions  judged  and  igno- 
rance overcome.  It  is  this  second  reading  of  the 
Gospel,  gentlemen,  that  we  are  now  accomplish- 
ing together. 

There  is  a  third,  less  fortunate  than  the  two 
former,  because  it  is  more  tardy,  but  it  brings  to 
Jesus  Christ  the  homage  of  man  in  his  maturity, 
and  has  produced  avowals  worthy  of  eternal 
remembrance.  Whilst  the  eighteenth  century 
heaped  insult  upon  the  Son  of  God,  in  the  very 
midst  of  that  school  which  attacked  him  there 
was  a  man  who  believed  no  more  than  the  rest,  a 
man  as  celebrated  as  the  rest — the  most  celebrated 
amongst  them,  with  one  exception — and  who 
above  them  all  was  privileged  with  sincere  im- 
pulsions. God  so  willed  it  that  his  name  might 
not  be  left  without  a  witness  even  amongst  those 
who  labored  to  destroy  his  reign.  That  man, 
then  at  the  height  of  his  glory,  acquainted  by  his 
studies  with  past  ages,  and  by  his  life  with  the 


46 


age  of  which  he  was  an  ornament,  had  to  speak 
of  Jesus  Christ  in  a  profession  of  faith  in  which 
he  desired  to  sum  up  all  the  doubts  and  convic- 
tions which  his  meditations  on  religious  matters 
had  left  in  his  mind.  After  having  treated  of 
God  in  a  worthy,  although  in  a  confused  manner, 
he  came  to  the  Gospel  and  Jesus  Christ.  There, 
that  soul  floating  between  error  and  truth  sud- 
denly lost  its  hesitation,  and  with  a  hand  firm  as 
a  martyr's,  forgetting  his  age  and  his  works,  the 
philosopher  wrote  the  page  of  a  theologian — a 
page  which  was  to  become  the  counterpoise  of 
the  blasphemy  :  "  Ecrasez  I'infame  !  "  It  con- 
cluded by  these  words,  which  will  resound 
throughout  Christendom  until  the  last  coming 
of  Christ :  "  If  the  life  and  death  of  Socrates  be 
those  of  a  sage,  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ 
are  those  of  a  God." ' 

It  mio-ht  well  have  been  thouo-ht  that  the  force 
of  that  confession  would  never  have  been  sur- 
passed, whether  in  regard  to  the  genius  of  the 
man  who  wrote  it,  the  authority  of  his  unbelief, 
the  glory  of  his  name,  and  the  circumstances  con- 
nected with  the  age  which  received  it ;  but  it 
would  have  been  an  error.    Another  man,  another 

>  Rousseau,  Emile. 


47 


expression,  anotlier  glory,  another  phase  of  unbe- 
lief, another  age,  another  avowal  met,  and  were 
greater  altogether,  if  not  in  each  separate  part, 
than  those  you  have  just  heard.  Our  age  com- 
menced by  a  man  who  outstripped  all  his  con- 
teinporaries,  and  whom  we,  who  have  followed, 
have  not  equalled.  A  conqueror,  a  soldier,  a 
founder  of  empire,  his  name  and  his  ideas  are 
still  everywhere  present.  After  having  uncon- 
sciously accomplished  the  work  of  Grod,  he  dis- 
appeared, that  work  being  done,  and  waned  like 
a  setting  sun  in  the  deep  waters  of  the  ocean. 
There,  upon  a  barren  rock,  he  loved  to  recall  the 
events  of  his  own  life ;  and,  from  himself,  going 
back  to  others  who  had  lived  before  him,  and  to 
whom  he  had  a  right  to  compare  himself,  he  could 
not  fail  to  perceive  a  form  greater  than  his  own 
upon  that  illustrious  stage  whereon  he  took  his 
place.  He  often  contemplated  it ;  misfortune 
opens  the  soul  to  illuminations  which  in  pros- 
perity are  unseen.  That  form  constantly  rose 
before  him — he  was  compelled  to  judge  it.  One 
evening  in  the  course  of  that  long  exile  which 
expiated  past  faults  and  lighted  up  the  road  to 
the  future,  the  fallen  conqueror  asked  one  of  the 
few  companions  of  his  captivity  if  he  could  tell 


48 


him  what  Jesus  Christ  really  was.  The  soldiei 
begged  to  be  excused;  he  had  been  too  busy 
during  his  sojourn  in  the  world  to  think  about 
that  question.  "  What !  "  sorrowfully  replied  the 
inquirer,  "  you  have  been  baptized  in  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  you  cannot  tell  me,  even  here  upon 
this  rock  which  consumes  us,  what  Jesus  Christ 
was !  Well,  then,  I  will  tell  you ; "  and,  opening 
the  Gospel,  not  with  his  hands,  but  from  a  heart 
filled  by  it,  he  compared  Jesus  Christ  with  him- 
self and  all  the  great  characters  of  history;  he 
developed  the  difi'erent  characteristics  which  dis- 
tinguished Jesus  Christ  from  all  mankind ;  and 
after  uttering  a  torrent  of  eloquence  which  no 
Father  of  the  Church  would  have  disclaimed, 
he  ended  with  these  words:  "In  fine,  I  know 
men,  and  I  say  that  Jesus  Christ  was  not  a 
man ! " 

These  words,  gentlemen,  sum  up  all  I  would 
say  to  you  on  the  inner  life  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
express  the  conclusion  which,  sooner  or  later, 
every  man  arrives  at  who  reads  the  Gospel  with 
just  attention.  You  who  are  yet  young  have  life 
before  you;  you  will  see  learned  men,  sages, 
princes,  and  their  ministers;  you  will  witness 
elevations  and  ruins ;  sons  of  time  time  will  ini- 


49 


tiate  you  into  the  hidden  things  of  man;  and 
when  you  have  learned  them,  when  you  know 
the  measure  of  what  is  human,  some  day,  psr- 
haps,  returning  from  those  heights  for  which  you 
hoped,  you  will  say  also,  "  I  know  men,  and  I 
say  that  Jesus  Christ  was  not  a  man  !  " 

The  day  too  will  come,  when  upon  the  tomb 
of  her  great  captain,  France  will  grave  these 
words,  and  they  will  shine  there  with  more  im- 
mortal lustre  than  the  sun  of  the  Pyramids  and 
Austerlitz ! 


THE  PUBLIC  POWER  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


My  Loed — Gentlemen, 

Jesus  Cheist  declared  that  he  was  God,  and 
by  his  character  he  proved  the  sincerity  of  that 
declaration :  therefore  he  was  God.  But  is  this 
all  the  proof  of  his  divinity  ?  Doubtless  the  first 
manifestation  of  beings  endowed  with  intelligence 
is  their  word,  the  affirmation  which  they  give  of 
themselves ;  doubtless,  the  expression  of  what 
they  are  by  their  moral  physiognomy,  or  charac 
ter,  is  the  second  and  natural  manifestation  of 
the  same  beings :  but  is  this  all  ?  Is  there  noth- 
ing beyond  this  ?  And  even  should  this  demon- 
stration suffice  as  to  the  ordinary  relations  be- 
tween men,  will  it  be  sufficient  when  it  is  a 
question  of  intercourse  between  God  and  men  ? 
Evidently  not.  For  it  requires  a  certain  amount 
of  penetration,  and  time  also,  in  order  to  judge  a 
character ;  a  moral  physiognomy  is  not  fully  dis- 
closed in  a  single  day,  and  when  God  appears, 
gentlemen,  when  he  deigns  to  come  to  us,  it  is 
manifest  that,  at  the  first  glance,  there  should  be 


51 


in  his  appearance  sometliing  exclusive  of  doubt, 
or  discussion,  or  time,  or  even  science,  something 
recognizable  immediately  by  all ;  something,  in 
a  word,  manifesting  openly  the  public  power  of 
God,  and  infallibly  revealing  his  presence  and 
action.  Even  as  there  is  a  certain  expression  of 
the  majesty  of  temporal  sovereignty,  there  should 
be  for  God  an  eminent  and  adequate  means,  by 
which,  as  soon  as  he  appears,  every  intelligent 
being,  not  in  m^d  revolt  against  him,  should 
bend  before  him  and  exclaim :  It  is  God  !  What 
is  this  mode  of  manifestation,  which  I  have  called 
the  public  power  of  God  ?  In  what  does  it  con- 
sist? Did  Jesus  Christ  possess  it?  What  ob- 
jections does  it  raise,  and  how  are  they  answered  ? 
Such,  gentlemen,  is  the  vast  field  we  are  about  to 
traverse  to-day.  I 

No  being  can  manifest  itself  save  by  the  ele- 
ments contained  within  itself,  and  which  consti- 
tute its  nature.  Now  all  beings,  of  what  kind 
soever,  contain  but  three  elements,  namely,  sub- 
stance, force,  and  law ;  substance,  which  is  their 
centre  of  being ;  force,  which  is  their  action ;  law, 
which  is  the  measure  of  their  action.  If  we  cast 
a  glance  upon  the  lowest  in  the  scale  of  beings, 
upon  that  which  approaches  nearest  to  nothing- 


52 


ness,  we  shall  find  in  it  these  three  elements. 
Thus  the  atom  has  a  substance,  something  which 
adheres,  which  holds  its  place,  something  which 
we  cannot  analyze,  but  which  we  have  called  by 
a  mysterious  name,  signifying  that  which  is  under 
and  sustains  what  is  above.  The  atom  possesses 
a  resisting  force :  in  order  to  displace  it,  a  move- 
ment, however  slight  it  may  be,  is  required,  and 
without  that  movement  it  remains  stationary.  It 
possesses  a  cohesive  force  by  which  its  parts  hold 
together,  a  force  of  affinity  by  which  it  attracts 
other  atoms  to  itself,  for  it  is  its  vocation,  as  it  is 
yours,  to  increase.  It  possesses  a  force  of  passi- 
bility  by  which  it  receives  light,  heat,  and  all 
the  fluids  of  which  its  obscure  yet  mysterious 
and  profound  life  has  need.  In  fine,  its  substance 
and  its  force  are  regulated  by  a  law;  it  is  not 
alone  in  the  world,  it  is  connected  with  other 
beings,  is  subject  to  other  influences,  as  its  own 
influence  is  exercised ;  its  action  is  measured,  as 
the  action  of  others  upon  itself  is  measured. 
Substance,  force,  law — all  these  are  in  an  atom, 
and  all  these  are  in  God,  who  is  the  father  of  the 
atom.  God  is  the  fulness  of  substance,  the  ful- 
ness of  force,  the  fulness  of  law;  he  is  infinite 
substance,  absolute  force,  eternal  law.     He  is  yet 


53 


more,  he  is  tlie  centre  of  all  substances,  tlieir  cre- 
ator and  preserver;  the  centre  of  all  forces,  their 
beginning  and  their  end ;  the  centre  of  all  laws, 
their  principle,  their  sanction,  and  their  majesty. 
As  beings  are  thus  formed,  from  the  atom  even 
to  God,  every  being  is  able  to  manifest  itself  in 
a  three-fold  manner,  namely,  by  its  substance,  by 
its  force,  or  by  its  law.  By  its  substance,  thus 
bodies  appear  to  us ;  by  its  force,  thus  the  soul 
reveals  itself  to  us ;  by  its  law,  thus  the  heavenly 
bodies,  even  when  invisible,  are  anticipated  by 
the  astronomer  through  the  general  movement 
that  governs  them,  withholding  or  bearing  them 
away  from  our  view.  And  consequently  God 
may  manifest  himself  as  substance,  as  force,  and 
as  law;  as  the  centre  of  all  substances,  of  all 
forces,  and  of  all  laws.  For  if  an  atom  possesses 
the  magnificent  power  of  disclosing  itself,  if  from 
its  very  dust  and  nothingness  it  imposes  itself 
upon  our  vision,  enters  our  academies,  provokes 
discussion,  exhausts  our  learning  for  ages,  how 
much  more  should  God  possess  the  right  and 
power  to  disclose  himself !  A  being  that  does 
not  do  this,  is  not.  For  the  vocation  of  every 
being,  without  exception,  is  to  appear,  to  take  a 
field  of  action  and  to  act  in  it ;  and  as  there  is  no 


54 


action  without  manifestation,  to  aj)pear  is  to  live. 
And  as  God  is  life,  his  sole  work  is  evidently 
his  appearing,  radiating,  conquering ;  in  a  word, 
being  in  all  what  he  is,  namely,  the  king  of  sub- 
stances, the  king  of  forces,  the  king  of  laws. 

It  is  true,  he  now  hides  his  substance  from  us 
men,  and  we  may  exclaim  with  the  prophet : 
"  Verily,  thou  art  a  hidden  God  ! "  '  But  if  he 
withholds  from  us  that  direct  vision  of  himself, 
it  is  not  from  weakness  or  from  envy,  it  is  from 
respect  for  our  liberty  and  for  the  very  inter- 
course which  he  would  hold  with  us.  Had  we 
at  once  seen  his  substance,  the  overwhelming 
splendor  of  that  manifestation  would  have  taken 
from  our  soul  all  its  freedom  of  action ;  we  should 
have  adored  God  in  spite  of  ourselves,  whilst  the 
adoration  which  God  claims  from  us,  and  which 
he  has  a  right  to  claim,  is  an  adoration  of  choice 
and  love,  springing  from  our  soul  and  reaching 
to  his  own.  It  was  needful  then  that  God  should 
manifest  himself  without  dazzling  our  vision  and 
making  us  the  slaves  of  his  beauty;  it  was  need- 
ful that  we  should  see  him  without  seeing  him, 
that  we  should  be  sure  of  his  presence  without 
being  oppressed  by  it ;  and  this  is  why  he  has 

>  Isaiah  xlv.  15. 


55 


hidden  his  substance  from  us  whilst  he  leaves  to 
us  his  light,  as  the  sun  sometimes  gathers  clouds 
to  lessen  his  splendor,  remaining  still  visible  in 
the  midst  of  heaven. 

If  the  manifestation  of  God  by  his  substance 
would  have  been  too  powerful  for  our  liberty, 
there  was  another  reason  against  his  manifesting 
himself  only  by  his  law.  The  law  of  God  is 
truth,  that  is  to  say,  the  sum  of  all  necessary  and 
possible  relations,  of  all  uncreated  and  creatable 
relations.  In  revealing  truth,  God  indeed  reveals 
himself  to  us,  but  under  a  form  which  permits  us 
easily  to  disregard  him,  because  we  detach  truth 
from  the  living  source  which  bears  it,  and  be- 
cause we  make  of  it,  so  to  say,  a  creation,  an  idol 
of  our  own  mind ;  or,  being  unable  in  certain 
cases  to  hail  it  as  the  offspring  of  our  own  intel- 
ligence, we  rid  ourselves  of  it  as  a  stranger  who 
offends  and  contradicts  us.  Doubtless,  God  is 
able  to  raise  truth  to  the  state  of  prophecy,  by 
announcing  beforehand  relations  that  will  result 
in  the  course  of  ages  between  events  and  empires 
whose  names  do  not  yet  exist ;  but  prophecy 
needs  time  for  its  fulfilment  and  confirmation; 
up  to  the  latest  moment  it  remains  suspended 
in  history  as  a  dream  unworthy  of  our  attention, 


56 


and,  were  it  to  apply  to  events  too  near  at  hand, 
it  would  lose  force,  wanting  anteriority.  There- 
fore, even  in  the  proj^hetic  state,  truth  would  be 
insufficient  as  the  instantaneous  sign  of  the  divine 
presence.  So  that,  whilst  the  manifestation  of 
God  by  his  substance  would  be  too  powerful, 
that  which  he  gives  to  us  by  his  law,  or  truth, 
is  too  feeble  to  produce  immediate  conviction. 

Force  then  remains  to  God,  as  a  means  of  re- 
vealing himself  with  a  degree  of  splendor  which 
brings  neither  too  much  nor  too  little  light. 

But  God  possesses  force  itself,  and  can  exercise 
it  in  three  different  orders :  in  the  physical  order, 
which  includes  all  the  kingdoms  of  nature ;  in  the 
moral  order,  which  includes  whatever  relates  to 
the  soul;  in  the  social  order,  which  comprises 
the  soul  and  the  body  ranged  under  the  laws  of 
unity.  Now  God,  by  Jesus  Christ,  has  visibly 
applied  his  force  to  the  two  last  orders,  that  is 
to  say,  to  the  soul  and  to  society,  as  we  have 
shown  in  our  preceding  conferences  in  treating 
of  the  virtues  reserved  to  the  action  of  Catholic 
doctrine,  and  of  the  social  effects  produced  by 
that  same  doctrine,  the  offspring  of  Jesus  Christ. 
This  sign,  however,  was  insufficient  to  form  at 
once  *a  halo  of  divinity  for  Jesus  Christ,  when  on 


57 


his  first  appearing  among  men,  lie  had  to  present 
his  credentials  to  them  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  of  whom  he  called  himself  the  august 
and  only  Son.  The  conversion  of  the  soul,  its 
exaltation  to  the  highest  virtues,  needs  time,  and 
the  co-operation  of  man 'himself;  the  foundation 
of  a  visible  society,  endowed  with  privileges  of 
unity,  universality,  stability,  holiness,  needs  yet 
more  time,  and  the  co-operation  of  an  innumer- 
able multitude  of  men  spread  over  the  field  of 
ages  and  space.  God  does  not  create  a  society 
in  a  day,  he  does  not  even  so  convert  a  soul; 
and  when  perchance  he  works  this  last  prodigy, 
he  who  has  been  its  object,  and  who  has  the 
most  steadfast  consciousness  thereof,  does  not 
suddenly  become  a  burning  and  a  shining  light, 
enlightening  the  world  with  the  splendor  of  his 
virtue.  Men  hide  the  mystery  of  God,  and  keep 
it  long  from  the  eyes  of  the  world ;  like  St.  Paul, 
they  withdraw  into  the  desert,  and  that  desert — 
were  it  even  the  busy  throng — remains  long  in 
presence  of  a  transfigured  soul  before  recognizing 
in  it  the  divine  sign. 

What  remains  then  to  God,  gentlemen,  as  his 
eminent  mode  of  appearing,  his  own  and  inimit- 
able sign,  the  public  expression  of  his  physiog- 
3* 


68 


nomy  in  space  and  time  ?  There  remains  to  liim 
liis  physical  force,  or,  in  other  words,  his  sover- 
eignty over  nature,  a  sovereignty  which,  in  the 
matter  and  order  forming  its  field  of  action, 
meets  with  no  liberty  to  respect,  no  co-opera- 
tion to  solicit  or  wait  for,  but  simply  an  im- 
mense energy,  whose  instantaneous  submission 
announces  the  master  of  heaven  and  earth  to 
every  man  who  is  not  afraid  to  encounter  God. 
The  proj^er  character  of  this  sovereign  act  is  that 
it  requires  from  the  beholder  neither  study  nor 
science,  nor  any  preparation  requiring  time  or 
distinction,  but  sincerity  only.  It  is  so  foreign 
to  all  human  action  that,  at  least,  it  confounds, 
even  when  it  does  not  produce  conviction,  so 
that  the  rebel  has  no  resource  but  silence  against 
the  upright  man  who  exclaims  :  Digitus  Dei  est 
Hic  !  ^  Therefore,  human  tongues,  the  mysterious 
organs  of  truth,  have  given  a  singular  name  to 
the  act  by  which  God  exercises  his  sovereignty 
over  nature,  and  instantaneously  manifests  his 
presence  to  men  :  they  have  called  it  a  "  miracle," 
that  is,  the  marvellous  in  the  highest  degree,  the 
act  which  constitutes  the  public  power  of  God. 
But  does  Jesus  Christ  bear  upon  his  brow  this 

» Exodus  viii.  19. 


59 


sign  of  absolute  force  ?     Did  lie  work  miracles  ? 
Did  lie  exercise  the  public  power  of  God  ? 

One  day  John  the  Baptist  sent  his  disciples  to 
ask  him :  "  Art  thou  he  that  should  come,  or  look 
we  for  another  ? "  Jesus  Christ  answers  them  : 
"  Go,  and  tell  John  what  you  have  heard  and  seen ; 
the  blind  see,  the  lame  walk,  the  le23ers  are 
cleansed,  the  deaf  hear,  the  dead  rise  again,  to 
the  poor  the  Gospel  is  preached." '  That  is  to 
say,  Jesus  Christ,  the  man  whom  we  have  ac- 
knowledged as  the  most  admirable  character 
shown  in  history,  was  not  afraid  to  give  as  proof 
of  his  mission  and  divinity  a  whole  series  of 
miraculous  acts  wrought  by  himself.  And  in- 
deed, the  Gospel,  from  beginning  to  end,  is  a 
series  of  simple  sayings  which  pierce  to  the  very 
centre  of  the  soul,  and  of  prodigious  sayings 
which  agitate  nature  even  to  its  foundations. 
Vainly  have  men  endeavored  to  separate  these, 
and  see  two  works  in  one  single  work ;  the 
Gospel  resists  that  analysis  which  pretends  to 
extract  from  it  the  moral  substance  and  put 
aside  the  miraculous  substance,  to  take  from  the 
worker  of  miracles  the  support  of  the  sage,  and 
from  the  sage  the  support  of  the  worker  of  mira- 

'  St.  Luke  vii.  iJO-Za. 


60 


cles.  Both  of  tliese  remain  firmly  united  against 
the  wily  efi'orts  of  unbelief;  the  doctrine  sup 
ports  the  miracle,  the  miracle  justifies  the  doc- 
trine, and  the  Gospel  circulates  in  the  world 
with  an  invincible  character  of  unity,  which  per- 
mits and  obtains  for  Jesus  Christ  only  absolute 
hatred  or  complete  adoration. 

This  unity  is  of  itself  a  demonstration  for  all 
who  reflect  seriously.  Nevertheless,  unbelief, 
amazed  at  its  powerlessness  to  divide  Jesus 
Christ,  falls  back  upon  itself,  and  anxiously  ex- 
claims :  Is  it  then  really  true  that  Jesus  Christ 
gave  sight  to  the  blind,  made  the  lame  to  walk, 
cleansed  the  lepers,  gave  hearing  to  the  deaf, 
and  life  to  the  dead  ?  Is  it  true  that  he  acted 
as  the  master  of  nature,  and  that  daily,  before 
the  eyes  of  the  people,  in  the  light  of  heaven,  his 
creating  hand  proved  that  a  divine  virtue  dwelt 
in  him  ?  Is  there  not  a  horrible  falsehood  en- 
grafted upon  the  sincerity  of  that  life  ? 

Gentlemen,  the  Gospel  is  from  a  period  in  his- 
tory: it  is  a  history.  The  miracles  of  Jesus 
Christ  were  wrought  in  the  public  squares,  be- 
fore multitudes  of  all  conditions,  b'efore  numer- 
ous and  bitter  enemies.  They  formed  the  basis 
of  a  teaching  which  divided  a  whole  country, 


61 


and  whicli  soon  divided  the  universe.  If,  not- 
withstanding the  character  of  truth  which  dis- 
tinguishes the  Gospel  from  all  other  books,  you 
suspect  its  testimony  as  the  work  of  those  who 
believed  in  Jesus  Christ,  you  cannot,  by  a  con- 
trary reason,  suspect  the  recitals  and  impressions 
of  those  who  did  not  believe  in  the  new  master, 
and  who  everywhere  persecuted  his  disciples,  his 
doctrines,  and  even  his  name.  A  public  discus- 
sion was  raised,  a  man  called  himself  God ;  he 
died  for  having  done  so ;  his  nation,  divided 
upon  his  tomb,  appealed  from  that  blood,  and 
from  his  nation  men  appealed  to  that  blood 
shed,  which  on  all  sides  found  adorers.  Now 
publicity  is  a  power  which  forces  the  enemies  of 
a  cause  to  pronounce  openly,  and  in  spite  of  them 
selves  to  concur  in  the  authentic  formation  of  a 
history  which  they  detest  and  would  fain  utterly 
destroy.  It  is  in  vain ;  publicity  forces  them,  they 
are  compelled  to  speak,  and  even  in  calumnia- 
ting they  are  compelled  to  speak  enough  of  truth 
to  save  it  for  ever  from  perishing.  This  it  is, 
gentlemen,  that  saves  history.  Nothing  in  the 
world  is  more  hated  and  more  feared;  the  o]3- 
pressors  of  nations  and  the  oppressors  of  God 
labor  at  nothing  more  vigorously  than  in  endeav- 


62 

oriiig  to  prevent  tlie  existence  of  history ;  they 
silence  the  four  winds  of  heaven  against  it,  they 
shut  up  their  victim  within  the  narrow  and  deep 
walls  of  their  dungeons ;  they  surround  it  with 
cannon,  lances,  and  all  the  instruments  of  menace 
and  fear;  but  publicity  is  stronger  than  any 
empire;  it  bears  along  even  those  who  hold  it 
in  execration ;  it  constrains  them  to  speak ;  the 
cannon  turn,  the  lances  fall,  and  history  passes 
on ! 

So,  gentlemen,  has  the  history  of  the  miracles 
of  Jesus  Christ  advanced.  It  has  advanced  by 
his  very  enemies ;  by  the  Pharisees  who  crucified 
him,  by  the  pagan  rationalists  who  crucify  his 
memory.  The  deicidal  Jews,  in  the  face  of  pub- 
licity filling  the  whole  world,  could  not  avoid 
expressing  their  sentiments  and  opinions  upon 
the  miraculous  life  of  Christ ;  they  were  com- 
j)elled  to  pronounce  an  aflirmation  or  a  denial, 
and  a  denial  they  dared  not  pronounce,  because 
no  one  in  the  world  can  impose  absolute  false- 
hood in  regard  to  public  facts  after  the  w^orld 
has  spoken.  Absolute  falsehood  is  no  more  pos- 
sible in  the  order  of  history  than  is  absolute 
error  in  the  order  of  speculation.  The  Jews 
have   perverted   the   miracles  of  Jesus   Christ ; 


63 


they  have  not  denied  tliem ;  tliey  have  written 
that  Jesus  Christ  assumed  in  the  temple  the  in- 
communicable name  of  God,  and  that  by  that 
sovereign  name  he  commanded  nature.  This 
explanation  is  deposited  in  the  most  grave  monu- 
ments of  their  tradition,  and  this  is  all  they  have 
been  able  to  do  against  the  accusing  memory  of 
Jesus  Christ,  against  the  blood  which  the  whole 
universe  reproached,  and  still  reproaches  them 
for  shedding.  But  what  more  could  they  do  ? 
Publicity  is  master  of  men  who  have  seen ;  it 
becomes  changed  into  tradition  upon  their  tomb, 
and  pursues  them  from  age  to  age,  from  justice 
to  justice,  even  to  their  latest  posterity. 

The  pagan  rationalists  came  in  their  turn  to 
deal  with  the  history  of  Jesus  Christ.  Doubtless 
they  had  taken  no  part  in  his  crucifixion,  and  it 
was  not  his  blood  that  alarmed  them  ;  but,  with 
his  blood,  Jesus  Christ  had  shed  upon  the  world 
a  truth  which  condemned  to  nothingness  the 
wisdom  of  the  wise ;  could  the  wise  of  this  world 
forgive  him  ?  They  also  then  had  to  give  a  criti- 
cal text  of  his  life,  and,  in  order  to  depreciate  it, 
they  had  to  employ  all  the  resources  which  the 
traditions  and  discussions  of  their  times  afforded 
them.     What  have  they  said  of  the  miracles  of 


64 


Jesus  Christ?  "What  have  Celsus,  Porphyrius, 
Julian — names  for  ever  illustrious,  because  from 
the  earliest  Christian  ages  they  have  been  the 
heralds  of  the  Son  of  God  in  the  incomparable 
offices  of  enmity — what  have  they  said  of  him  ? 
Have  they  denied  that  Jesus  Christ  wrought 
miraculous  works  in  support  of  his  doctrine? 
No  more  than  the  Jews ;  they  have  simply  made 
a  skilful  magician  of  him.  Why  a  magician  and 
not  a  sage  ?  What  need  was  there  of  so  strange 
an  expression  ?  It  is  because  history  was  there. 
It  was  possible  to  pervert  the  miraculous  works 
of  Jesus  Christ ;  it  was  not  possible  to  be  silent 
in  regard  to  them. 

It  is  then  clear,  gentlemen,  by  the  very  testi- 
mony of  the  enemies  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  his 
preaching  was  accompanied  by  superhuman  pro- 
digies. But  we  must  not  separate  these  exterior 
incentives  to  faith,  strong  as  they  are,  from  the 
intimate  character  of  the  Gospel  and  Jesus  Christ. 
In  an  edifice  all  is  bound  together  from  the  base 
to  the  summit.  If  Jesus  Christ  was  sincere,  as 
we  have  shown,  if  his  nature  was  stamped  witli 
the  character  of  divine  superiority,  his  sincerity 
and  his  superiority  call  for  confidence  in  his  mir- 
acles, as  well   as  in  the  affirmations   which   he 


65 


made  of  liimself.  If  Jesus  Christ  did  not  speak 
falsely  in  declaring  that  he  was  God,  by  a  stronger 
reason  he  did  not  lie  in  acting  as  God.  For  it  is 
more  shameful,  more  contrary  to  sincerity  to  per- 
form impostures,  that  is  to  say — pardon  the  ex- 
pression, but  by  its  force,  that  very  expression 
shows  the  scorn  in  which  mankind  holds  impos- 
ture— it  is  more  shameful  to  be  a  juggler  than  a 
knave.  The  knave  deceives  only  by  his  speech, 
the  juggler  adds  thereto  miserable  manipulations 
in  order  to  dazzle  the  eyes  of  ignorant  spectators. 
It  is  a  lie  heaped  upon  a  lie,  an  indignity  upon 
an  indignity.  And  this  is  why  human  tongues 
— so  skilful  in  expressing  scorn — have  created 
that  odious  name  of  juggler  to  mark  all  w^ho 
dare  to  employ  illusion  in  aid  of  imposture. 

The  superiority  of  Jesus  Christ  is  no  less  favor- 
able to  the  reality  of  his  miracles  than  his  sin- 
cerity. No  grave  and  learned  man  will  ever 
employ  juggles  to  support  a  doctrinal  teaching. 
For  what  is  jugglery  ?  It  is  the  use  of  a  power 
unknown  to  the  science  of  the  times  in  which  it 
is  practised.  But  science  will  not  be  slow  to 
arrive  at  it ;  absent  for  a  moment,  it  is  inevitable 
in  the  course  of  mankind ;  a  day  comes  when  it 
rises  radiant,  and,  casting  back  its  investigating 


6Q 


lustre  upon  tlie  past,  it  judges,  weighs,  verifies 
all,  and,  whilst  it  brings  to  the  true  works  of 
genius  or  of  the  Divinity  their  final  consecration, 
it  reduces  to  dust  the  puerile  practices  which  had 
imposed  upon  the  faith  of  untaught  generations. 
Therefore  nothing  great  in  the  world  has  ever 
been  founded  upon  impostures  of  this  kind; 
every  work  possessing  any  force  or  dignity,  even 
if  not  altogether  free  from  falsehood,  has  gath- 
ered its  meed  of  stability  from  something  ancient 
and  true.  Mahomet  is  a  memorable  example  of 
this.  Author  of  a  religious  revolution  in  a  coun- 
try unenlightened  by  science,  he  emjiloyed  every 
human  means  to  insure  success,  but  he  did  not 
employ  jugglery,  because  it  is  not  a  human 
means.  I  have  recently  read  through  the  Koran. 
Every  twenty  pages  Mahomet  touches  the  ques- 
tion of  miracles ;  he  objects,  or  he  is  reproached 
with  not  performing  them ;  never  does  he  once 
venture  to  say  that  he  had  performed  or  ever 
would  perform  them ;  he  constantly  eludes  the 
question.  He  invokes  Abraham,  Moses,  all  the 
patriarchs ;  an  event  in  his  life  when  God  pro- 
tected him;  a  victory  which  had  crowned  his 
arms  and  justified  his  doctrine  ;  he  loudly  afiirms 
that  God  is  God,  and  that  Mahomet  is  his  pro- 


67 


phet;  this  is  all.  Aud  this  scorn  of  miserable 
imposture,  this  respect  for  general  ideas  in  re- 
gard to  Providence  and  traditional  memorials,  is 
not  an  insignificant  mark  of  his  skill,  and  even 
of  his  genius. 

And  we  are  to  believe  that  Jesus  Christ,  the 
author  of  the  Gospel,  stooped  to  the  most  un- 
worthy imitations  of  the  omnipotence  of  God, 
that  he  passed  the  time  of  his  public  mission 
in  deceiving  the  eyes  of  his  contemporaries  by 
phantoms  as  despicable  as  they  are  powerless  ! 
We  are  to  believe  that  such  miserable  trickery 
could  have  obtained  the  greatest  success  of  faith 
which  the  human  race  has  ever  wrought !  It  is 
not  possible.  Common  sense  as  well  as  history 
condemns  such  a  supposition.  The  public  life 
of  Jesus  Christ  answers  to  his  inner  life,  and  his 
inner  life  confirms  his  public  life.  He  declared 
himself  to  be  God,  he  was  believed  to  be  God, 
he  acted  as  God,  and  precisely  because  that  posi- 
tion is  one  of  marvellous  strength  men  have  been 
forced  to  try  their  greatest  efi'orts  against  it ;  his- 
tory and  common  sense  speaking  too  loudly  in 
favor  of  Jesus  Christ,  it  was  needful  to  have  re- 
course to  metaphysics  and  physics  in  order  to 
snatch  from  his  hands  at  least  the  sceptre  of 


68 


miracles.  Let  us  see  whether  they  have  suc- 
ceeded. 

Two  things  are  advanced  against  him.  First, 
Jesus  Christ  wrought  no  miracles,  because  it  is  im- 
possible. Secondly,  his  working  miracles  is  of  no 
importance,  since  everybody  can  work  them,  every- 
body has  wrought  them,  everybody  works  them. 

First,  Jesus  Christ  wrought  no  miracles  be- 
cause it  is  impossible.  And  why?  Because 
nature  is  subject  to  general  laws,  which  make 
of  its  body  a  perfect  and  harmonious  unity  where 
each  part  answers  to  all,  so  that  if  one  single 
point  were  violated  the  whole  would  at  once 
perish.  Order,  even  when  it  comes  from  God, 
is  not  an  arbitrary  thing  able  to  destroy  or 
change  itself  at  will ;  order  necessarily  excludes 
disorder,  and  no  greater  disorder  can  be  con- 
ceived in  nature  than  that  sovereign  action  which 
would  possess  the  faculty  of  destroying  its  laws 
and  its  constitution.  Miracles  are  impossible 
under  these  two  heads;  impossible  as  disorder, 
impossible  because  a  partial  violation  of  nature 
would  be  its  total  destruction. 

That  is  to  say,  gentlemen,  that  it  is  impossible 
for  God  to  manifest  himself  by  the  single  act 
which   publicly  and   instantaneously  announces 


69 


his  presence,  by  tlie  act  of  sovereignty.  Whilst 
the  lowest  in  the  scale  of  being  has  the  right  to 
appear  in  the  bosom  of  nature  by  the  exercise  of 
its  proper  force ;  whilst  the  grain  of  sand,  called 
into  the  crucible  of  the  chemist,  answers  to  his 
interrogations  by  characteristic  signs  which  range 
it  in  the  registers  of  science,  to  God  alone  it 
should  be  denied  to  manifest  his  force  in  the  per- 
sonal measure  that  distinguishes  him  and  makes 
him  a  separate  being  !  Not  only  should  God 
not  have  manifested  himself,  but  it  must  be  for 
ever  impossible  for  him  to  manifest  himself,  in 
virtue  even  of  the  order  of  which  he  is  the  crea- 
tor. To  act,  is  to  live ;  to  appear,  is  to  live ;  to 
communicate,  is  to  live ;  but  God  can  no  longer 
act,  appear,  communicate  himself;  that  is  denied 
to  him.  Banished  to  the  profound  depths  of  his 
silent  and  obscure  eternity,  if  we  interrogate 
him,  if  we  supplicate  him,  if  we  cry  to  him,  he 
can  only  say  to  us — supposing,  however,  that  he 
is  able  to  answer  us :  "  What  would  you  have  ? 
I  have  made  laws !  Ask  of  the  sun  and  the  stars, 
ask  of  the  sea  and  the  sand  upon  its  shores ;  as 
for  me,  my  condition  is  fixed,  I  am  nothing  but 
repose,  and  the  contemplative  servant  of  the 
works  of  my  hands  !  " 


70 


Ah  !  gentlemen,  it  is  not  tlius  that  the  whole 
human  race  has  hitherto  understood  God.  Men 
have  understood  him  as  a  free  and  sovereign 
teing ;  and,  even  if  they  have  not  always  had  a 
correct  knowledge  of  his  nature,  they  have  at 
least  never  refused  to  him  power  and  goodness. 
In  all  times  and  places,  sure  of  these  two  attri- 
butes of  their  heavenly  Father,  they  have  offered 
up  their  ever  fervent  prayer  to  him ;  they  have 
asked  all  from  him,  and  daily,  upon  their  bended 
knees,  they  ask  him  to  enlighten  their  minds,  to 
give  them  uprightness  of  heart,  health  of  body,  to 
preserve  them  from  scourges,  to  give  them  vic- 
tory in  war,  prosperity  in  peace,  the  satisfaction 
of  every  want  in  every  state  and  condition. 

There  is  perhaps  some  poor  woman  here  who 
hardly  understands  what  I  say.  This  morning 
she  knelt  by  the  bedside  of  her  sick  child ;  and, 
forsaken  by  all,  without  bread  for  the  day,  she 
clas]3ed  her  hands  and  called  to  him  who  ripens 
the  corn  and  creates  charity.  "  O  Lord,"  said 
she,  "  come  to  my  help ;  O  Lord,  make  haste  to 
help  me ! "  And  even  whilst  I  speak,  number- 
less voices  are  lifted  up  towards  God  from  all 
parts  of  the  earth  to  ask  from  him  things  in 
which  nature  alone  can  do  nothing,  and  in  which 


71 


those  souls  are  persuaded  that  God  can  do  all. 
Who  then  is  deceived  here  ?  Is  it  the  metaphy- 
sician, or  the  human  race  ?  And  how  has  nature 
taught  us  to  desj^ise  nature  in  order  to  trust  in 
God  ?  For  it  is  not  science  that  teaches  us  to 
pray,  we  pray  in  spite  of  science ;  and  as  there 
is  nothing  here  below  but  science,  nature  and 
God ;  if  we  pray  in  spite  of  science,  it  must  be 
nature  or  God  that  teaches  us  to  pray,  and  to 
believe  with  all  our  heart  in  the  miracles  of 
divine  power  and  goodness.  After  this,  whether 
nature  become  disorganized  or  not,  or  even  if  it 
must  perish  whenever  the  jfinger  of  God  touches 
it,  it  is  assuredly  the  very  least  concern  to  us. 
Nevertheless,  out  of  respect  for  certain  minds,  I 
will  show  that  miracles  do  no  violence  to  the 
natural  order. 

Nature,  as  I  have  already  said,  possesses  three 
elements ;  namely,  substances,  forces,  and  laws. 
Substances  are  essentially  variable ;  they  change 
their  foiTQ,  their  weight,  combining  and  separa- 
ting at  each  moment.  Forces  bear  the  same 
character;  they  increase  and  diminish,  cohere, 
accumulate,  or  separate.  They  have  nothing  im- 
mutable but  the  mathematical  laws,  which  at 
the  same  time  govern  forces  and  substances,  and 


wlience  tlie  order  of  the  universe  proceeds.  The 
mobility  of  forces  and  substances  spreads  move- 
ment and  life  in  nature  ;  the  immutability  of 
mathematical  laws  maintains  there  an  order 
which  never  fails.  Without  the  first  of  these  all 
would  be  lifeless ;  without  the  second  all  would 
be  chaos.  This  established,  what  does  God  do 
when  he  works  a  miracle  ?  Does  he  touch  the 
principle  of  universal  order,  which  is  the  mathe- 
matical law  ?  By  no  means.  The  mathematical 
law  appertains  to  the  region  of  ideas — that  is  to 
say,  to  the  region  of  the  eternal  and  the  absolute ; 
God  can  do  nothing  here,  for  it  is  himself.  But 
he  acts  upon  substances  and  upon  forces — upon 
substances  which  are  created,  upon  forces  which 
have  their  root  in  his  supreme  will.  Like  our- 
selves, who,  being  subject  to  the  general  combi- 
nations of  nature,  nevertheless  draw  from  our  in- 
terior vitality  movements  which  are  in  appear- 
ance contrary  to  the  laws  of  weight,  God  acts 
upon  the  universe  as  we  act  upon  our  bodies. 
He  applies  somewhere  the  force  needful  to  pro- 
duce there  an  unusual  movement :  it  is  a  miracle, 
because  God  alone,  in  the  infinite  fount  of  his 
will — which  is  the  centre  of  all  created  and  pos- 
sible forces — is  able  to  draw  forth  sufiicient  ele- 


73 


ments  to  act  suddenly  to  this  degree.  If  it 
please  him  to  stop  the  sun — to  use  a  common 
expression — he  opposes  to  its  projective  force  a 
force  which  counterbalances  it,  and  which,  by 
virtue  even  of  the  mathematical  law,  produces 
repose.  It  is  not  more  difficult  for  him  to  stop 
the  whole  movement  of  the  universe. 

It  is  the  same  with  all  other  miracles;  it  is  a 
question  of  force,  the  use  of  which,  so  far  from 
doing  violence  to  the  physical  order — which  in- 
deed would  be  of  little  moment — returns  to  it 
of  its  own  accord,  and,  moreover,  maintains  upon 
earth  the  moral  and  religious  order,  without 
which  the  physical  order  would  not  exist. 

This  objection  answered,  gentlemen,  let  us  pro- 
ceed to  examine  the  second.  We  are  told  that 
miracles  prove  nothing,  because  all  doctrines 
have  miracles  in  their  favor,  and  because,  by  the 
help  of  a  certain  occult  science,  it  is  easy  to  per- 
form them. 

I  boldly  deny  that  any  historical  doctrine,  that 
is,  any  doctrine  founded  in  the  full  ligbt  of  his- 
tory by  men  authentically  known,  possesses  mir- 
aculous works  for  its  basis.  At  the  present 
time,  we  have  no  example  of  it ;  no  one,  before 
our  eyes,  among  so  many  instructors  of  the 
4 


74 


human  race  wliom  we  see  around  us,  has  as  yet 
dared  to  promise  us  the  exercise  of  a  power 
superior  to  the  ordinary  j)Ower  which  we  dispose 
of.  No  one  of  our  contemj)oraries  has  appeared 
in  public  giving  sight  to  the  blind  and  raising 
the  dead  to  life.  Extravagance  has  reached 
ideas  and  style  only,  it  has  not  gone  beyond. 
Returning  from  the  present  age  back  to  Jesus 
Christ,  we  find  no  one,  amongst  the  innumerable 
multitude  of  celebrated  heresiarchs,  who  has 
been  able  to  boast  that  he  could  command  nature 
and  place  the  inspirations  of  his  rebellious  pride 
under  the  protection  of  miracles.  Mahomet,  at 
the  same  time  heretic  and  unbeliever,  did  not 
attempt  it  any  more  than  the  others :  this  I  have 
already  said,  and  the  Koran  will  more  fully 
prove  it  to  any  one  who  will  take  the  pains  to 
read  that  plagiarism  of  the  Bible  made  by  a 
student  of  rhetoric  at  Mecca.  Beyond  Jesus 
Christ,  in  the  ages  claimed  by  history,  what  re- 
mains, if  we  put  aside  Moses  and  the  proj)hets — 
that  is,  the  very  ancestors  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  Shall 
we  notice  certain  strange  facts  connected  with 
Greece  and  Rome?  Shall  we  speak  of  that 
augur,  who,  says  Livy,  cut  a  stone  with  a  razor ; 
or  of  that  Vestal  who  drew  along  a  vessel  by 


75 


her  girdle,  or  even  of  the  blind  man  cured  by 
Vespasian  ?  These  facts,  whatever  they  may  be, 
are  isolated  and  belong  to  no  doctrine ;  they 
have  provoked  no  discussion  in  the  world,  and 
have  established  nothing;  they  are  not  doctrinal 
facts.  Now  we  are  treating  of  miracles  which 
have  founded  religious  doctrines — the  only  mir- 
acles worthy  of  consideration ;  for  it  is  evident 
that  if  God  manifests  himself  by  acts  of  sover- 
eignty, it  must  be  for  some  great  cause,  worthy 
of  himself  and  worthy  of  us,  that  is  to  say,  for  a 
cause  which  affects  the  eternal  destinies  of  the 
whole  human  race.  This  places  out  of  the  ques- 
tion altogether  all  isolated  facts,  such  as  those 
related  in  the  life  of  Apollonius  of  Thyana. 

This  personage  is  of  the  first  century  of  the 
Christian  era,  and  his  life  was  written  at  a  much 
later  j)eriod  by  an  Alexandrine  philosopher  called 
Philostratus,  who  desio-ned  to  make  of  it  a  rival 
to  the  Gospel,  and  of  Apollonius  himself  the 
counterpart  of  Jesus  Christ.  A  most  singular 
physiognomy  is  here  presented  to  us,  but  that  is 
all.  What  has  Apollonius  of  Thyana  accom- 
plished in  regard  to  doctrine  ?  Where  are  his 
writings,  his  social  works,  the  traces  of  his  pas- 
sage upon  earth  ?     He  died  on  the  morrow  of  his 


76 


life.  Instead  of  certain  equivocal  facts,  had  lie 
removed  mountains  during  his  life,  it  would  but 
have  been  a  literary  curiosity,  an  accident,  a 
man,  nothing:. 

Where  then  shall  we  look  for  doctrines  founded 
in  the  light  of  history  upon  miraculous  events  ? 
Where  in  the  historical  world  is  there  another 
omnipotence  than  that  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  Where 
do  we  find  other  miracles  than  his  and  those  of 
the  saints  who  have  chosen  him  for  their  master, 
and  who  have  derived  from  him  the  power  to  con- 
tinue what  he  had  begun  ?  Nothing  appears 
U23on  the  horizon  ;  Jesus  Christ  alone  remains, 
and  his  enemies,  eternally  attacking  him,  are 
able  to  bring  against  him  nothing  but  doubts, 
and  not  a  single  fact  equal  or  even  analogous  to 
him. 

But  do  there  not  at  least  exist  in  nature  cer- 
tain occult  forces  which  have  since  been  made 
known  to- us,  and  which  Jesus  Christ  might  have 
employed  !  I  will  name,  gentlemen,  the  occult 
forces  alluded  to,  and  I  'will  do  so  without  any 
hesitation ;  they  are  called  magnetic  forces. 
And  I  might  easily  disembarrass  myself  of  them, 
since  science  does  not  yet  recognize  them,  and 
even   proscribes   them.      Nevertheless   T   choose 


rather  to  obey  my  conscience  than  science.  You 
invoke  then  the  magnetic  forces;  I  believe  in 
them  sincerely,  firmly ;  I  believe  that  their 
effects  have  been  proved,  although  in  a  manner 
which  is  as  yet  incomplete,  and  probably  will 
ever  remain  so,  by  instructed,  sincere,  and  even 
by  Christian  men ;  I  believe  that  these  effects, 
in  the  great  generality  of  cases,  are  purely  natu- 
ral ;  I  believe  that  their  secret  has  never  been 
lost  to  the  world,  that  it  has  been  transmitted 
from  age  to  age,  that  it  has  occasioned  a  multi- 
tude of  mysterious  actions  whose  trace  is  easily 
distinguished,  and  that  it  has  now  only  left  the 
shade  of  hidden  transmissions  because  this  age 
has  borne  upon  its  brow  the  sign  of  j)ublicity. 
I  believe  all  this.  Yes,  gentlemen,  by  a  divine 
preparation  against  the  pride  of  materialism,  by 
an  insult  to  science,  which  dates  from  a  more  re- 
mote epoch  than  we  can  reach,  God  has  willed 
that  there  should  be  irregular  forces  in  nature 
not  reducible  to  precise  formulae,  almost  beyond 
the  reach  of  scientific  verification.  He  has  so 
willed  it,  in  order  to  jorove  to  men  who  slumber 
in  the  darkness  of  the  senses,  that  even  indepen- 
dently of  religion,  there  remained  within  us  rays 
of  a  higher  order,  fearful  gleams  cast  upon  the 


78 


invisible  world,  a  kind  of  crater  by  which  our 
soul,  freed  for  a  moment  from  the  terrible  bonds 
of  the  body,  flies  away  into  spaces  which  it  can- 
not fathom,  from  whence  it  brings  back  no  re- 
membrance, but  which  give  it  a  sufficient  warn- 
ing that  the  present  order  hides  a  future  order 
before  which  ours  is  but  nothingness. 

All  this  I  believe  is  true ;  but  it  is  also  true 
that  these  obscure  forces  are  confined  within 
limits  which  show  no  sovereignty  over  the  natu- 
ral order.  Plunged  into  a  factitious  sleep  man 
sees  through  opaque  bodies  at  certain  distances ; 
he  names  remedies  for  soothing  and  even  for 
healing  the  diseases  of  the  body ;  he  seems  to 
know  things  that  he  knew  not,  and  that  he  for- 
gets on  the  instant  of  his  waking ;  by  his  will 
he  exercises  great  empire  over  those  with  whom 
he  is  in  magnetic  communication ;  all  this  is  dif- 
ficult, painful,  mixed  up  with  uncertainty  and 
prostration.  It  is  a  phenomenon  of  vision  much 
more  than  of  operation,  a  phenomenon  which  be- 
longs to  the  prophetic  and  not  to  the  miraculous 
order.  A  sudden  cure,  an  evident  act  of  sover- 
eignty, has  nowhere  been  witnessed.  Even  in 
the  prophetic  order,  nothing  is  more  pitiful. 

It  would  seem  that  this  extraordinary  vision 


79 


should  at  least  reveal  to  us  something  of  tliat 
future  wliich  may  be  called  tlie  present  future. 
It  does  notliing  of  this.  What  has  magnetism 
foretold  during  the  last  fifty  years  ?  Let  it  tell 
us,  not  what  will  happen  in  a  thousand  years, 
not  what  will  happen  the  day  after  to-morrow 
even,  but  what  will  happen  to-morrow  morning. 
All  those  who  dispose  of  our  destinies  are  living, 
they  speak,  they  write,  they  alarm  our  suscepti- 
bility ;  but  let  them  show  us  the  certain  result 
of  their  action  in  a  single  public  matter.  Alas ! 
magnetism,  which  was  to  change  the  world,  has 
not  even  been  able  to  become  an  agent  of  police ; 
it  strikes  the  imagination  as  much  by  its  sterility 
as  by  its  singularity.  It  is  not  a  principle,  it  is 
a  ruin.  Thus,  on  the  desolate  banks  of  the 
Euphrates,  in  the  place  where  Babylon  once 
stood  and  where  that  famous  tower  was  be2:un 
which,  to  speak  like  Bossuet,  was  to  bear  even 
to  heaven  the  testimony  of  the  antique  power  of 
man,  the  traveller  finds  ruins  blasted  by  the 
thunderbolt,  and  almost  superhuman  in  their 
magnitude.  He  stoops,  and  eagerly  gathers  up 
a  fragment  of  brick ;  he  discovers  characters 
upon  it  which  belong,  doubtless,  to  the  primitive 
writing  of  the  human   race ;    but  vain   are  his 


80 


efforts  to  deciplier  them,  tlie  sacred  fragment 
falls  back  again  from  his  hands  upon  the  colos- 
sus calcined  by  fire:  it  is  nothing  now  but  a 
broken  tile,  which  even  curiosity  despises. 

I  look  around,  gentlemen.  I  see  nothing 
more:    Jesus  Christ  is  alone. 

Perhaps,  however,  you  may  yet  say  to  me :  If 
Jesus  Christ  wrought  miracles  during  his  life, 
and  even  in  the  early  days  of  the  Church,  why 
does  he  do  so  no  longer  ?  Why  ?  Alas,  gentle- 
men, he  works  miracles  every  day,  but  you  do 
not  see  them.  He  works  them  with  less  profu- 
sion, because  the  moral  and  social  miracle,  the 
miracle  which  needed  time,  is  wrought,  and  be- 
fore your  eyes.  When  Jesus  Christ  laid  the 
foundations  of  his  Church,  it  was  needful  for  him 
to  obtain  faith  in  a  work  then  commencing ;  now 
it  is  formed,  although  not  yet  finished :  you  be- 
hold it,  you  touch  it,  you  compare  it,  you  meas- 
ure it,  you  judge  whether  it  is  a  human  work. 
Why  should  God  be  prodigal  of  miracles  to  those 
who  do  not  see  tlie  miracle  ?  Why,  for  instance, 
should  I  lead  you  to  the  mountains  of  the  Tyrol, 
to  see  prodigies  which  a  hundred  thousand  of 
your  contemporaries  have  witnessed  there  during 
the  last  fifteen  years  ?     Why  should  I  pick  up  a 


81 


stone  in  the  quarry  when  the  Church  is  built  ? 
The  monument  of  God  is  standing,  every  power 
has  touched  it,  every  science  has  scrutinized  it, 
every  blasphemy  has  cursed  it ;  examine  it  well, 
it  is  there  before  you.  Between  earth  and 
heaven,  as  says  the  Comte  de  Maistre,  it  has  been 
suspended  these  eighteen  centuries;  if  you  do 
not  see  it  what  would  you  see  ?  In  a  celebrated 
parable  Jesus  Christ  speaks  of  a  certain  rich  man 
who  said  to  Abraham :  Send  some  one  from  the 
dead  to  my  brethren.  And  Abraham  answers : 
"  If  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets, 
neither  will  they  believe,  though  one  rose  from 
the  dead."  '  The  Church  is  Moses,  the  Church  is 
all  the  prophets,  the  Church  is  the  living  mira- 
cle :  he  who  sees  not  the  living,  how  should  he 
see  the  dead  ? 

1  St.  Luke  xvi.  31. 
4* 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  JESUS 
CHRIST. 


My  Loed — Gentlemen, 

We  have  seen  that  in  his  public  as  well  as  in 
his  inner  life,  Jesus  Christ  lived  as  God.  But  to 
live  is  only  the  first  act  of  life,  the  second  act  of 
life  is  that  of  outliving  ourselves.  For  all  life 
has  an  object,  and  it  is  the  accomplishment  of 
that  object  which  judges  the  life.  Consequently, 
it  is  not  enough  for  me  to  have  proved  to  you 
even  with  the  highest  evidence  that  the  inner 
life  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  his  public  life,  possessed 
a  divine  character;  for  if  that  life  has  not  at- 
tained its  object,  if  it  has  left  no  traces,  whatever 
else  we  may  think  of  it,  it  has  been  vain.  It  is 
needful  then  that  Jesus  Christ,  after  having 
lived  as  God,  should  have  perpetuated  himself 
as  God ;  if  he  has  not  done  this,  all  the  conclu- 
sion we  should  be  able  to  draw  from  that  dis- 
proportion between  his  life  and  the  effects  of  his 
life,  would  be  that  he  was  the  most  magnificent 
and   the   most    inexplicable    nothing    that   the 


83 


world  has  ever  seen.  But  what  had  Jesus  Christ 
to  do  in  order  to  pepetuate  himself  as  God  ?  He 
had  to  fulfil  the  object  of  his  life,  such  as  he  had 
publicly  announced  and  represented  it,  which 
was  to  found  here  below  the  kingdom  of  God. 
"  After  John  was  put  in  prison,"  says  the  evan- 
gelist St.  Mark,  "  Jesus  came  into  Galilee,  preach- 
ing the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  say- 
ing :  The  time  is  fulfilled,  and  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  at  hand :  repent  ye  and  believe  the  gos- 
pel." '  And,  sending  forth  his  disciples  to  take 
their  part  in  the  apostolate,  he  thus  set  forth 
their  mission :  "  Into  whatsoever  city  ye  enter, 
and  they  receive  you,  eat  such  things  as  are  set 
before  you,  and  heal  the  sick  that  are  therein, 
and  say  to  them :  The  kingdom  of  God  is  come 
nigh  unto  you.  But  into  whatsoever  city  ye 
shall  enter,  and  they  receive  you  not,  go  your 
ways  into  the  streets  of  the  same,  and  say :  Even 
the  very  dust  of  your  city  which  cleaveth  to  us  do 
we  wipe  off  against  you;  yet  know  this,  that  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  come  nigh  unto  you." '  And 
what  was  this  kingdom  of  God  preached  by 
Jesus  Christ,  as  being  the  object  of  his  coming 
upon  earth  ?     It  was  himself,  inasmuch  as  that  he 

I  St.  Mark  i.  14,  15.  «  St.  Luke  x.  &-11. 


84 


was  to  be  recognized  as  God,  loved  as  God, 
adored  as  God,  the  founder  and  chief  of  an 
universal  society,  of  which  his  divinity  was  to  be 
the  corner-stone  through  faith,  love  and  adora- 
tion. I  ask  you,  gentlemen,  is  this  work  accom- 
plished ?  Has  Jesus  Christ,  living  and  dead, 
.bunded  here  below  a  kingdom  of  which  he  is  the 
God  ?  Has  he  founded  the  kingdom  of  souls  ? 
Is  he  amongst  us  the  one  and  only  king  of  souls  ? 
I  no  longer  need  to  demonstrate  this ;  during  ten 
years  I  have  shown  its  marvels  to  you ;  and  had 
I  not  done  so,  this  spiritual  kingdom  is  before 
your  eyes,  many  among  you  are  its  members  and 
its  subjects,  it  is  a  thing  that  speaks  of  itself  and 
is  above  all  demonstration.  Yes,  there  exists  in 
the  world — in  this  world  of  mire  and  change — 
a  kingdom  of  souls  wherein  God  is  worshipped 
in  spirit  and  in  truth,  where  men  wrestle  with 
flesh  and  blood  and  pride  ;  where  nothing  re- 
sembles what  is  elsewhere  to  be  found,  and 
of  which  Jesus  Christ  is  the  author,  the  chief, 
the  king,  the  God.  And  as  the  angel  of  the 
Apocalypse,  on  beholding  the  last  triumph  of 
that  dominion,  proclaimed  its  glory  beforehand 
by  that  unparalleled  expression  uttered  be- 
fore  astonished   worlds :    Factum   est  —  "  It   is 


85 


done ! " '  so,  liencefortli,  as  a  disciple  of  Jesus 
Clirist,  a  sou  of  this  kingdom,  an  adorer  of  tlie 
king  of  souls,  I  say  also  to  you  :  Factum  est — It 
is  done  / 

This  fact  is  then  no  longer  in  question  between 
us ;  it  is  proved,  it  is  palpable,  it  is  here  before 
us,  and  I  may  thus  conclude :  "  After  having 
lived  as  God,  Jesus  Christ  has  perpetuated  him- 
self as  God."  But  it  may  not  be  unprofitable  to 
show  you  how  greatly  this  work  surpasses  all 
created  power ;  and  I  will  endeavor  to  do  this 
by  exposing  to  you  the  double  difficulty  which 
Jesus  Christ  had  to  overcome.  I  will  call  one  of 
these  the  inner  difficulty,  and  the  other  the  pub- 
lic difficulty ;  their  explanation  will  occupy  the 
hour  which  God  now  permits  me  to  devote  to 
you. 

The  first  condition  of  the  kingdom  of  souls 
and  of  its  establishment  was  that  of  obtaining 
faith  in  its  founder,  that  is  to  say,  that  Jesus 
Christ  should  become  for  an  innumerable  multi- 
tude of  men  the  rule  of  all  their  thoughts,  and 
that,  renouncing  themselves  in  regard  to  their 
most  necessary  and  most  profound  attribute — 
which   is    their    own    judgment  —  they   should 

»  Apocalypse  xi.  15. 


86 


accept  that  of  Jesus  Christ  as  tlieir  own,  even  to 
tlie  point  of  being  able  to  say  witli  St.  Paul :  "  I 
live,  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me. "  '  Not, 
gentlemen,  that  Jesus  Christ  required  from  us 
the  sacrifice  of  our  reason  in  order  to  establish 
his  reign  by  faith,  for  he  is  himself  reason,  and  it 
is  he  who  gives  us  ours  by  a  reflection  of  his 
own,  as  it  is  expressly  written  in  the  Gospel  of 
St.  John.  But  he  had  to  require  from  us  the 
sacrifice  of  our  own  judgment,  which  is  a  very 
different  thing  from  the  sacrifice  of  our  reason. 
In  fact,  reason  does  not  exist  in  us  in  its  pure 
state;  were  it  so,  enlightened  as  we  should  be 
by  a  single  and  an  undivided  light,  we  should 
advance  in  the  most  perfect  unanimity.  Instead 
of  this,  although  participating  in  reason,  one  and 
universal,  without  which  we  should  not  be  intel- 
ligent beings,  we  mix  up  with  it  weaknesses, 
obscurities,  habits,  resolutions,  numberless  mys- 
terious circumvallations  which  bar  up  its  great 
outlets,  lessen  its  light,  and  make  of  our  reason 
that  limited  and  personal  thing  which  we  call 
private  judgment.  It  is  this  judgment,  the 
result  of  our  servitude  and  liberty,  which  divides 
men  in  the  house  of  their  common  mother,  and 

1  Gal.  ii.  20 


87 


liinclers  them  from  founding  here  below,  by 
themselves,  the  holy  republic  of  truth.  We 
cleave,  in  fact,  to  our  own  judgment  in  a  two- 
fold manner;  because  it  is  based  upon  reason, 
and  nothing  is  more  just  than  to  hold  to  reason ; 
and  we  cleave  to  it  still  more,  perhaps,  by  that 
individuality  which  distinguishes  us,  and  which 
is  made  uj)  of  the  innumerable  impressions 
which  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  intelligence  have 
deposited  in  us  from  the  day  when  we  first  exer- 
cised that  admirable  faculty  of  seeing,  hearing, 
judging,  reasoning  and  feeling.  Now,  by  the 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  necessary  to  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  kingdom  of  souls,  we  must  abdicate 
that  personal  judgment  which  is  so  natural  and 
so  dear  to  us ;  we  must  found  our  reason  in  the 
superior  reason  of  Christ,  we  must  break  in 
pieces  the  personal  mould — more  or  less  false 
and  narrow — which  makes  us  what  we  are,  and 
enter  into  the  wide  and  deep  mould  whence  the 
gospel  has  come,  and  which  is  the  very  mind  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

This  sacrifice,  gentlemen,  is  infinitely  painful 
CO  us,  because,  in  order  to  tear  us  from  ourselves, 
it  touches  the  root  of  our  spiritual  being.  It  is 
still  more  painful  under  another  head.     Not  only 


88 


do  we  cleave  to  ourselves  as  nature  and  liberty 
have  made  us,  but  we  strive  also  to  impose  our- 
selves upon  others,  to  become  their  models,  their 
masters,  and  to  create  a  kingdom  of  minds  in 
order  to  govern  them.  In  whatever  degree  man 
may  have  received  from  heaven  an  elevated 
mind,  this  is  his  propensity ;  in  the  mental  order, 
as  in  all  the  orders  of  action,  the  will  of  man  is 
to  reign.  If  he  be  favored  by  what  is  called 
birth,  or  fortune,  or  power,  his  will  is  to  be 
supreme  in  them ;  in  fine,  if  he  be  gifted  in  the 
intellectual  order,  he  thirsts  to'  govern  minds. 
This  last  royalty  is  the  most  courted  of  all,  and 
its  most  absolute  sovereigns  are  not  satisfied  if 
they  do  not  bring  all  minds  into  subjection  to 
their  own.  When  therefore  Jesus  Christ  requires 
from  us  the  sacrifice  of  our  judgment  to  his 
supreme  reason,  he  requires  from  us  the  abdica- 
tion of  the  royalty  which  we  have  most  at  heart, 
he  enters  into  a  conspiracy,  the  object  of  which 
is  to  humble  us  before  the  most  rightful  throne 
to  which  we  could  aspire.  For  what  sovereignty 
is  more  lawful  than  the  sovereignty  of  the  mind 
— that  gift  which  does  not  come  to  us  from 
chance,  ol'  election,  or  the  efforts  of  others,  but 
from  our  own  selves,  from  what  is  sown  in  us  by 


89 


nature  and  cultivated  by  us  ?  And  in  proportion 
as  we  possess  this,  wlietlier  by  science  or  philos- 
ophy, so  are  we  the  more  incensed  against  that 
usurper  called  Christ,  who  pretends  to  nothing 
less  than  to  set  up  his  mind  in  the  place  of  our 
own,  than  to  cause  us  to  think  his  thoughts  and 
speak  his  words.  This,  gentlemen,  is  the  secret 
of  that  aversion  which  so  many  learned  men  and 
philosophers  feel  towards  Jesus  Christ ;  they  are 
men  who  will  not  submit  to  be  dethroned ;  and, 
naturally,  they  are  in  the  right. 

Nevertheless  it  has  been  necessary  that,  for 
eighteen  centuries,  all  of  us,  whoever  we  may  be, 
who  are  the  children  of  Christ,  should  consent  to 
be  dethroned,  to  become  little,  to  be  taught,  not 
only  during  our  childhood,  but  throughout  our 
lives ;  and,  laden  with  years  and  honors,  having 
governed  men  otherwise  than  by  the  mind,  in 
our  last  moments,  when  about  to  appear  before 
God,  we  have  again  been  required  to  abdicate 
that  reign  of  the  judgment,  so  dear  to  pride,  in 
order  to  repose  in  Jesus  Christ  as  little  children, 
and  charge  him  to  bear  us  in  his  blessed  hands 
to  the  throne  of  that  pure  and  eternal  reason, 
who  is  God  his  Father. 

None  other  upon  earth,  gentlemen,  none  other, 


90 


has  obtained  that  supreme  dictatorship  of  the 
understanding.  Tyrants  have  oppressed  human 
thought  by  hindering  its  manifestation,  they 
have  never  governed  it ;  it  eludes  all  the  devices 
of  the  most  subtle  rule.  Sages  have  formed 
schools,  but  ephemeral  schools,  whose  laws  have 
been  disowned  even  by  their  disciples.  Should 
we  wonder  thereat  ?  The  disciple  of  the  sage  is 
a  man  like  himself;  he  idolizes  the  idea  of  the 
master  until  the  day  comes  when  his  own  idea, 
ripe  for  an  act  of  legitimate  ingratitude,  enables 
him  to  attain  to  the  honors  of  teaching,  and 
mark  his  place  in  the  history  of  the  unstable 
dynasties  of  human  knowledge.  The  religious 
sects,  although  standing  upon  more  solid  ground, 
have,  however,  met  with  no  better  success. 
Heresy  leaves  us  our  own  judgment,  Protestant- 
ism leaves  us  our  own  judgment;  all  these  doc- 
trines, so  far  from  enchaining  faith,  have  had  for 
object  its  emancipation.  Even  Mahometanism, 
like  idolatry  beforehand,  was  unable  to  consti- 
tute a  doctrinal  authority,  and  consequently  it 
leaves  its  followers  to  the  chance  of  their  per- 
sonal direction.  All,  save  Christ,  either  leave  to 
us  or  restore  to  us  our  judgment,  and  here  lies 
the  eternal  charm  of  error.     What  do  we  now 


91 


hear  around  us?  What  does  the  present  age, 
uncertain  of  its  course,  and  almost  alike  inca- 
pable of  boldness  in  evil  and  in  good,  demand 
of  Christ  with  supplication  ?  Is  it  not  to  slacken 
the  bonds  of  his  rule,  to  retrench  certain  articles 
of  the  ancient  Christian  constitution,  to  revise 
the  primitive  pact  of  the  Gospel,  to  sign,  in  fine, 
a  compromise  between  time  and  eternity  ?  But 
Christ  smiles  at  those  frail  desires  which  do  not 
spring  from  entire  obedience  to  his  adorable 
reason  ;  between  him  and  ourselves,  nothing  can 
exist  but  himself  or  ourselves,  the  abdication  of 
our  own  judgment,  or  the  reign  of  our  own  judg- 
ment :  between  these  we  have  to  choose. 

It  is  not  even  enough  for  Jesus  Christ  to  set 
up  his  judgment  in  place  of  our  own  ;  as  king  of 
our  minds,  he  is  as  yet  only  at  the  beginning  of 
his  ambition  ;  he  requires  more  than  our  minds, 
he  requires  our  hearts,  he  requires  afifection. 
And  what  affection,  great  God  ?  A  love  which 
is  the  fulness  of  human  love,  and  before  which 
all  history  of  love  is  as  nothing.  And  that  you 
may  judge  of  what  a  prodigy  this  is,  let  us 
examine  closely  the  difficulty  which  we  ourselves 
find  in  exciting  love  during  our  lives. 

Hardly  has  the  flower  of  sentiment  germina- 


92 


ted  within  us  before  we  seek  in  the  companions 
of  our  youth  sympathies  which  seize  upon  our 
hearts,  and  draw  them  forth  from  their  dear  and 
lonely  solitude.  Thence,  in  the  history  of  all 
generous  lives,  come  those  youthful  times,  those 
early  remembrances  which  none  other  w^ill  ever 
efface,  and  which,  even  in  extreme  old  age,  leave 
in  our  souls  a  perfume  of  the  past.  Yet,  not- 
withstanding the  strength  of  these  young  ties, 
the  simj)le  course  of  time  susj^ends  their  pro- 
gress :  our  eyes,  in  growing  stronger,  become  less 
sensible  to  the  beauties  of  our  age,  something  no 
louo;er  of  childhood  delivers  us  from  that  first 
charm  which  perhaps  none  will  ever  equal,  but 
which  no  lono;er  suffices  for  us.  Afi^ection  cools 
into  grave  and  virile  confidence,  and  our  soul, 
having  mounted  a  step  upon  the  cycle  of  life, 
needs  a  new  attraction,  which,  in  filling  it,  brings 
it  into  subjection.  Shall  I  j)ronounce  its  name  ? 
And  why  not  ?  There  are  two  things  before 
which,  by  the  help  of  God,  I  will  never  shrink, 
namely,  duty  and  necessity.  It  is  needful  in  my 
discourse  that  I  should  pronounce  the  name,  too 
much  profaned,  of  the  second  sentiment  of  man ; 
I  name  it  then,  and  I  say,  that  man  rising  from 
youth  to  manhood,  needs  an  attraction  capable 


93 


at  the  same  time  of  satisfying  his  youth  and  his 
strength,  his  need  of  renovation  and  of  future. 
God  has  prepared  for  him  love ;  which,  if  it  be 
true,  that  is  to  say  pure,  should  complete  the 
education  of  his  life  and  render  him  worthy  of 
having  a  posterity.  But,  O  weakness  of  our 
nature !  the  cares  of  manhood  soon  furrow  our 
brow,  and  its  wrinkles  stamp  upon  it  a  worthy 
testimony  to  thought ;  what  more  do  we  need  ? 
Henceforth,  incapable  of  obtaining  the  inter- 
change of  an  infatuation  already  appeased  for 
us,  and  which  no  longer  possesses  illusions 
enough  for  its  own  nourishment,  we  rest  in  an 
attachment  more  calm,  more  serene,  still  possess- 
ing its  charm,  but  which  no  longer  merits  to  be 
compared  to  the  ardor  of  that  passion  which  I 
have  just  called  by  its  proper  name. 

All  the  resources  of  the  soul  are  not,  however, 
yet  exhausted ;  as  the  offspring  of  eternal  love, 
the  genius  of  its  source  inspires  it  even  unto  the 
end.  With  the  first  shadow  of  age,  the  senti- 
ment of  paternity  descends  into  our  heart,  and 
takes  possession  of  the  void  left  there  by  its 
former  affections.  It  is  not  a  state  of  decadency 
— beware  of  thinking  so  ;  after  the  regard  of 
God  upon  the  world,  nothing  is  more  beautiful 


94 


than  tlie  regard  of  tlie  aged  upon  the  young,  so 
pure  is  it,  so  tender,  so  disinterested,  and  it 
marks  in  our  life  the  very  point  of  perfection 
and  of  the  highest  likeness  to  God.  The  body 
declines  with  age,  the  mind  perhaps  also,  but  not 
the  soul  whereby  we  love.  Paternity  is  as  supe- 
rior to  love  as  love  itself  is  superior  to  affection. 
Paternity  is  the  crown  of  life.  It  would  be  full 
and  stainless  love,  if  from  the  child  to  the  father 
there  were  the  same  equal  return  as  from  friend 
to  friend,  from  the  wife  to  the  husband.  But  it 
is  not  so.  When  we  were  children  we  were 
loved  more  than  we  loved,  and,  having  grown 
old,  we  also  love  more  than  we  are  loved.  We 
must  not  complain  of  it.  Your  children  take 
the  very  road  upon  which  you  have  passed 
before  them,  the  road  of  affection,  the  road  of 
love — eager  courses  which  do  not  permit  them 
to  reward  that  gray-haired  passion  which  we  call 
j)aternity.  It  is  the  honor  of  man  to  find  again 
in  his  children  the  ingratitude  which  he  showed 
to  his  fathers,  and  thus  to  end,  like  God,  by  a 
disinterested  sentiment. 

But  it  is  nevertheless  true  that,  although  pur- 
sumg  love  all  our  lives,  we  never  obtain  it  save 
in  an  imperfect  manner,  and  which  wounds  our 


95 


hearts.  AdcI  even  had  we  obtained  it  during 
life,  what  would  remain  of  it  to  us  after  death  ? 
I  know  that  fond  prayers  may  follow  us  beyond 
this  world,  that  our  names  may  still  be  pro- 
nounced in  pious  remembrance ;  but  soon  heaven 
and  earth  will  have  advanced  another  step ; 
then  comes  oblivion,  silence  dwells  upon  us,  the 
ethereal  breeze  of  love  passes  over  our  tomb  no 
more.  It  is  gone,  it  is  gone  forever ;  and  such  is 
the  history  of  man  in  regard  to  love. 

I  am  wrong,  gentlemen  ;  there  is  a  man  whose 
tomb  is  guarded  by  love,  there  is  a  man  whose 
sepulchre  is  not  only  glorious,  as  a  prophet  de- 
clared, but  whose  sepulchre  is  loved.  There  is  a 
man  whose  ashes,  after  eighteen  centuries,  have 
not  grown  cold ;  who  daily  lives  again  in  the 
thoughts  of  an  innumerable  multitude  of  men; 
who  is  visited  in  his  cradle  by  shepherds  and  by 
kings,  who  vie  with  each  other  in  bringing  to 
him  gold  and  frankincense  and  myrrh.  There  is 
a  man  whose  steps  are  unweariedly  retrodden  by 
a  large  portion  of  mankind,  and  who,  although 
no  longer  present,  is  followed  by  that  throng  in 
all  the  scenes  of  his  bygone  pilgrimage,  upon 
the  knees  of  his  mother,  by  the  borders  of  the 
lakes,  to  the  tops  of  the  mountains,  in  the  by- 


96 


ways  of  the  valleys,  under  the  shade  of  the 
olive-trees,  in  the  still  solitude  of  ^the  deserts. 
There  is  a  man,  dead  and  buried,  whose  sleep 
and  whose  awaking  have  ever  eager  watchers, 
whose  every  word  still  vibrates  and  produces 
more  than  love,  produces  virtues  fructifying  in 
love.  There  is  a  man,  who  eighteen  centuries 
ago  was  nailed  to  the  gibbet,  and  whom  millions 
of  adorers  daily  detach  from  this  throne  of  his 
suifering,  and  kneeling  before  him,  prostrating 
themselves  as  low  as  they  can  without  shame, 
there,  upon  the  earth,  they  kiss  his  bleeding  feet 
with  unspeakable  ardor.  There  is  a  man  who 
was  scourged,  killed,  crucified,  whom  an  ineffa- 
ble passion  raises  from  death  and  infamy,  and 
exalts  to  the  glory  of  love  unfailing  which  finds 
in  him  peace,  honor,  joy,  and  even  ecstacy. 
There  is  a  man  pursued  in  his  sufferings  and  in 
his  tomb  by  undying  hatred,  and  who,  demand- 
ing apostles  and  martyrs  from  all  posterity,  finds 
apostles  and  martyrs  in  all  generations.  There 
is  a  man,  in  fine,  and  one  only,  who  has  founded 
his  love  upon  earth,  and  that  man  is  thyself,  O 
Jesus  !  who  hast  been  pleased  to  baptize  me,  to 
anoint  me,  to  consecrate  me  in  thy  love,  and 
whose  name  alone  now  023ens  my  very  heart,  and 


97 


draws  from  it  those  accents  wliicli  overpower  me 
and  raise  me  above  myself. 

But  among  great  men  who  are  loved  ?  Among 
warriors  ?  Is  it  Alexander  ?  Caesar  ?  Charle- 
magne ?  Among  sages  ?  Aristotle  ?  or  Plato  ? 
Who  is  loved  among  great  men  ?  Who  ?  Name 
me  even  one ;  name  me  a  single  man  who  has 
died  and  left  love  upon  his  tomb.  Mahomet  is 
venerated  by  Mussulmans ;  he  is  not  loved.  No 
feeling  of  love  has  ever  touched  the  heart  of  a 
Mussulman  repeating  his  maxim :  "  God  is  God, 
and  Mahomet  is  his  prophet."  One  man  alone 
has  gathered  from  all  ages  a  love  which  never 
fails ;  Jesus  Christ  is  the  sovereign  lord  of  hearts 
as  he  is  of  minds,  and  by  a  grace  confirmatory  of 
that  which  belongs  only  to  him,  he  has  given  to 
his  saints  also  the  privilege  of  producing  in  men 
a  pious  and  faithful  remembrance. 

Yet  even  this  is  not  all ;  the  kingdom  of  souls 
is  not  yet  established.  Jesus  Christ,  being  God, 
should  not  be  satisfied  with  steadfast  faith  and 
immortal  love,  he  must  exact  adoration.  Adora- 
tion is  the  annihilation  of  one's  self  before  a 
superior  being,  and  this  sentiment,  gentlemen,  is 
not  a  stranger  to  us.  It  lies,  like  all  the  others, 
in  the  very  depth  of  our  nature,  and  plays  a 
5 


98 


more  imj)ortant  part  there  than  you  are  perhaps 
aware  of.  Let  us  not  disguise  this  truth  from 
ourselves;  all  of  us,  more  or  less,  desire  to  be 
adored.  It  is  this  innate  thirst  for  adoration 
which  has  produced  every  tyranny.  You  some- 
times wonder  that  a  prince  should  weave  to- 
gether numberless  intrigues  in  order  to  emanci- 
pate himself  from  human  and  divine  laws ;  that 
he  should  add  violence  to  cunning,  shed  streams 
of  blood  and  march  onward  to  the  execration  of 
mankind ;  you  ask  yourselves  why  he  does  this. 
Ah !  gentlemen,  for  the  very  natural  object  of 
being  adored,  of  seeing  every  thought  subject  to 
his  own,  every  will  in  conformity  to  his  will, 
every  right,  every  duty,  emanating  from  him,  and 
even  the  bodies  of  men  bent  like  slaves  before 
his  mortal  body.  Such  is  the  depth  of  our  heart, 
as  was  Satan's.  But  by  a  counterpoise  due  to 
that  frightful  malady  of  pride,  we  can  only 
desire  adoration  for  ourselves  by  abhorring  the 
adoration  of  others.  Thence  springs  the  execra- 
tion that  follows  despotism.  Mankind,  abased 
by  a  power  despising  all  law,  concentrates  its 
secret  indignation  within  itself,  awaits  the  inev- 
itable day  of  the  despot's  weakness,  and,  when 
that    day   comes,  it    turns    upon    and   tramples 


99 


under  foot  the  vile  creature  wlio  liad  disdained 
it  even  to  demanding  incense  from  it.  A  great 
orator  once  said  to  a  celebrated  tribune :  "  There 
is  but  one  step  from  the  Capitol  to  the  Tarpeian 
rock/'  I  shall  say  with  as  much  truth,  although 
in  less  grand  expression :  There  is  but  one  step 
from  the  altar  to  the  common  sewer.  Whoso- 
ever has  been  adored  will  sooner  or  later  be 
hurled  by  the  hand  of  the  peojDle  from  the  lofty 
summit  of  divine  majesty  usurped,  to  the  execra- 
tion of  eternal  opprobrium.  Such  do  we  find 
history — that  power  charged  with  the  promulga- 
tion of  the  judgments  of  God  upon  the  pride  of 
man. 

In  spite  of  history,  however,  Jesus  Christ  is 
adored.  A  man,  mortal  and  dead,  he  has  ob- 
tained adoration  which  still  endures,  and  of 
which  the  world  ofi*ers  no  other  example.  What 
emperor  has  held  his  temples  and  his  statues  ? 
What  has  become  of  all  that  population  of  gods 
created  by  adulation  ?  Their  dust  even  no 
longer  exists,  and  the  surviving  remembrance  of 
them  serves  but  to  excite  our  wonder  at  the 
extravagance  of  men  and  the  justice  of  God. 
Jesus  Christ  alone  remains  standing  upon  his 
altars,  not  in  a  corner  of  the  world,  but  over  the 


100 


wliole  earth,  and  among  nations  celebrated  by 
tlie  cultivation  of  tbe  mind.  The  greatest  mon 
uments  of  art  shelter  his  sacred  images,  the 
most  magnificent  ceremonies  assemble  the  people 
under  the,  influence  of  his  name ;  poetry,  music, 
painting,  sculpture,  exhaust  their  resources  to  pro- 
claim his  glory  and  to  offer  him  incense  worthy 
of  the  adoration  which  ages  have  consecrated 
to  him.  And  yet,  uj^on  what  throne  do  they 
adore  him  ?  Upon  a  cross  !  Upon  a  cross  ?  They 
adore  him  under  the  mean  appearances  of  bread 
and  wine !  Here,  thought  becomes  altogether 
2onfounded.  It  would  seem  that  this  man  has 
taken  delight  in  abusing  his  strange  power,  and 
in  insulting  mankind  by  prostrating  them  in 
wonder  before  the  most  vain  shadows.  Having 
by  his  crucifixion  descended  lower  than  death, 
he  made  even  of  ignominy  the  throne  of  his 
divinity ;  and,  not  satisfied  with  this  triumph,  he 
willed  that  we  should  acknowledge  his  supreme 
essence  and  his  eternal  life  by  an  adoration 
which  is  a  startling  contradiction  to  our  senses ! 
Can  such  success  in  such  daring  be  in  any  way 
understood  ? 

It  is  true  many  have  endeavored  to  overthrow 
his    altars ;    but    their    powerlessness   has   but 


101 


served  to  confirm  his  glory.  At  each  outrage 
he  has  seemed  to  grow  greater ;  genius  has  pro- 
tected him  against  genius,  science  against  sci- 
ence, empire  against  empire ;  whatever  arms 
have  been  uplifted  against  him  he  has  made  his 
ow^n;  and,  when  apparently  vanquished,  the 
world  has  still  beheld  him  calm,  serene,  master, 
adored  ! 

Thus  has  he  founded  the  kingdom  of  souls  by 
a  faith  which  costs  us  the  sacrifice  of  our  own 
judgment,  by  a  love  which  exceeds  all  love,  by 
an  adoration  which  we  have  given  to  him  alone ; 
a  triple  mystery  of  a  force  which  reveals  his 
divinity  to  us,  and  which  will  yet  more  clearly 
reveal  it  when  we  shall  have  taken  account  of 
the  public  difficulty  that  stood  in  the  way  of 
the  establishment  of  this  supernatural  kingdom. 

The  place  was  filled,  gentlemen,  when  Jesus 
Christ  came  into  the  world ;  the  place  was  filled 
because  it  is  never  void.  Even  had  he  pretended 
to  establish  between  himself  and  us  secret  rela- 
tions only,  a  kind  of  obscure  worship,  this  de- 
sign would  sooner  or  later  have  encountered 
fears  and  jealousies,  manifested  by  public  oppo- 
sition. But  Jesus  Christ  was  far  from  desiring 
to  hide  his  reign;    he  had  said:    "That  which 


102 


you  liear  in  the  ear,  preacli  ye  upon  the  house- 
tops,'" and  he  himself,  the  enemy  of  all  myste- 
rious initiation,  had  constantly  spoken  and  acted 
before  the  eyes  of  the  multitude  and  the  authori- 
ties. He  willed  a  visible  reign,  a  social  consti- 
tution of  his  doctrine,  a  recognized  priesthood, 
temples,  laws,  rights;  and  consequently  it  was 
inevitable  that  he  should  find  in  his  way  the 
religious  and  political  establishment  which  pre- 
ceded him.  That  establishmelit  had  two  names  : 
it  was  called  idolatry,  and  the  Roman  empire. 
Idolatry  was  the  worship  that  assembled  the 
universe  under  one  and  the  same  religious  form ; 
the  Roman  empire  was  the  power  that  governed 
all  known  mankind,  or  nearly  so.  The  one  and 
the  other  were  incompatible  with  the  establish- 
ment of  the  reign  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  reign 
could  only  begin  by  abolishing  idolatry  as  a  false 
religion,  and  by  modifying  the  Roman  empire  so 
as  to  fit  it  for  the  laws  promulgated  by  the 
Gospel. 

You  have,  perhaps,  hitherto  considered  idola- 
try as  a  religious  organization  easy  to  over- 
throw ;  you  have  greatly  deceived  yourselves. 
Of  all  the  forms  of    worship  that  have  taken 

»  St.  Matt.  X.  27. 


103 


possession  of  man,  none,  save  Christianity,  lias 
possessed  more  extent  and  solidity  than  idolatry. 
This  is  because  it  fully  satisfied  the  three  great 
passions  of  man.  What  are  these  three  pas- 
sions? The  first,  and  perhaps  it  will  surprise 
you,  the  first  is  the  religious  passion,  the  want 
of  intercourse  with  God.  Yes,  gentlemen,  the 
religious  passion  precedes  all  others,  even  the 
passion  of  sensuality.  For  sensuality  touches  only 
the  senses  which  are  fragile,  which  soon  become 
exhausted,  which  tire  of  themselves ;  whilst  the 
religious  want,  a  sort  of  divine  hunger,  has  its 
source  in  the  most  profound  depths  of  our  being, 
and  gathers  nourishment  there  from  all  those 
miseries  which  excite  in  us  a  continuous  distaste 
for  the  present  life.  Even  pride  comes  but  after 
it;  however  active  it  may  be,  it  is  subject  here 
below  to  too  many  humiliations  not  to  second 
and  bear  before  itself  in  our  soul  a  better  and  a 
gentler  sentiment,  that  which  draws  us  near  to 
God,  and  causes  us  to  seek  our  own  dignity  in 
his  greatness.  Religion  is  the  first  and  oldest 
friend  of  man ;  even  when  he  wounds  it,  he  still 
respects  and  cultivates  secret  intimacies  with  it. 
Let  not  the  state  of  our  country,  gentlemen, 
deceive  us  on  this  point ;  do  not  think  because 


104 


there  are  some  millions  of  men  around  us  who 
are  besotted  in  practical  atheism,  that  this  is  the 
natural  condition  of  the  human  race.  It  is  the 
result  of  extraordinary  circumstances,  and  not- 
withstanding the  irreligion  of  some  of  her  chil- 
dren, this  same  France  has  never,  for  a  single 
day,  ceased  to  bear  in  her  glorious  womb  a  mul- 
titude of  souls  who  serve  God  ardently,  and 
honor  their  faith  by  works  known  throughout 
the  world. 

Now,  idolatry,  in  sj)ite  of  its  slight  doctrinal 
character,  gave  satisfaction  to  the  religious  want ; 
it  had  temples,  altars,  a  priesthood,  sacrifices, 
prayers,  public  and  pompous  ceremonies,  a  very 
great  station  in  the  world,  and  the  shreds  of  its 
mythology  still  contained  sufficient  remembrance 
of  God  to  keep  the  soul  from  fasting  and  with- 
out food. 

But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  idolatry  in 
giving  satisfaction  to  the  elevated  inclinations 
of  our  nature  did  not  disdain  the  most  abject 
and,  abundantly  dispensed  sacred  nourishment  to 
them.  A  most  profound  and  subtle  art  had 
blended  together  God  and  matter,  religion  and 
sensuality,  causing  grave  thoughts  and  shameful 
solicitations   to   descend   from   the   same  altars. 


105 


The  idolater  had  all  in  his  gods;  whatever  he 
willed,  heaven  obeyed  his  desires.  What  a  mas- 
terpiece, had  heaven  in  its  turn  been  obeyed  ! 
In  addition,  the  third  passion  of  man,  the  pride 
of  domination,  found  also  in  this  worship,  which 
was  erudite  by  its  very  degradation,  an  ample 
satisfaction.  Idolatry  was  not  distinct  from  the 
empire ;  the  prince,  the  senate,  or  the  j^eople, 
conferred  the  sacerdotal  magistracy,  named  the 
pontiffs,  regulated  the  ceremonies,  took  pleasure 
in  covering  the  robe  of  their  consuls  with  the 
mantle  of  their  gods.  Religion  was  country 
also.  The  fasces  and  the  altars  were  seen  ad- 
vancing together  before  the  republic  ;  the  fasces, 
the  symbol  of  its  justice  and  power ;  the  altars, 
the  symbol  of  that  mysterious  alliance  which 
united  the  destinies  of  the  state  to  the  very  des- 
tinies of  the  gods. 

No,  you  will  never  adequately  represent  to 
yourselves  the  force  of  that  institution.  Ah  ! 
if  a  pagan  ceremony  were  to  rise  up  again  before 
you ;  if  you  could  see  all  Rome  mounting  to  the 
temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus,  that  concourse  of 
people,  those  legions,  that  senate,  all  those  patri- 
otic memorials  mounting  with  them,  and  all 
together  bearing  to  the  gods  the  new  victory  of 
5* 


106 


Itome !  If  you  could  liear  the  silence  and  the 
sound  of  unanimity,  that  hum  of  all  the  passions 
convinced  of  their  rights  and  satisfied  with  their 
triumph,  pride  as  well  as  sensuality,  sensuality 
as  well  as  religion,  the  elevated  and  the  abject, 
heaven  and  earth,  all  at  once,  all  in  a  single  day 
and  in  a  single  action :  if  you  had  seen  and 
heard  this,  you,  perhaps,  yielding  to  that  total 
intoxication  of  the  human  faculties,  would  for  a 
moment  have  bowed  the  head,  and  adored  in 
the  hands  of  Rome  the  antique  gods  of  the 
world ! 

However,  they  were  not  to  be  adored,  they 
were  to  be  destroyed,  such  was  the  order  of  Jesus 
Christ.  They  were  to  be  destroyed  throughout 
the  world,  since  the  whole  world  was  subject  to 
idolatry.  And  what  was  to  replace  it  ?  A  man, 
humbled  even  to  the  j^unishment  of  slaves;  a 
man,  come  from  a  country  upon  which  the 
Romans  showered  floods  of  ridicule  with  oppres- 
sion ;  a  Jew,  and  a  Jew  crucified  !  This  is  what 
the  fishermen  of  Judea  brought  to  Rome,  to  the 
Capitol,  to  replace  the  statue  of  Jupiter  Capi- 
tolinus  !  Judge,  then  !  Here  was  ignominy 
instead  of  greatness,  penance  and  mortification 
instead   of   sensuality.      Penance  and  mortifica- 


lo; 


tion ;  what  words  !  After  eighteen  centuries  of 
naturalization,  I  hardly  dare  to  pronounce  them 
before  you,  without  disguising  them  to  your  ears, 
which  have  nevertheless  been  nourished  by  the 
language  of  the  Gospel ;  and  it  was  necessary  to 
reveal  these  to  the  Romans  !  It  was  necessary 
to  say  to  them :  We  bring  you  a  religion  all  pure 
and  holy,  founded  upon  the  immolation  of  the 
body  by  chastity,  and  not  only  by  chastity,  which 
is  only  a  simple  retrenchment,  but  by  the  direct 
hatred  of  the  senses.  We  come,  with  the  scourge 
in  our  hands,  to  teach  you  to  treat  your  body  as 
a  slave,  because  it  is  the  slave  of  the  most  vile 
inclinations,  and  because  you  can  only  deliver 
your  souls  from  it  by  keej^ing  it  in  the  respect 
and  chastisement  of  obedience.  It  was  necessary 
to  say  these  things  to  a  people  puffed  up  by 
seven  centuries  of  arrogance  and  domination, 
plunged  in  sensuality  as  well  as  in  pride,  and 
accustomed  to  find  in  their  gods,  which  were  to 
be  destroyed,  the  justification  of  their  pompous 
ignominy.  But  Jesus  Christ  had  so  ordered  it ; 
all  that  was  said,  believed,  adopted,  and  the 
reign  of  idols  fell  before  the  reign  of  the  cross, 
in  spite  of  the  Roman  empire. 

The  Roman  empire  and  idolatry  were  as  one ; 


108 


but  it  was  not  less  inimical  to  the  Christian  es- 
tablishment on  another  hand.  That  empire  had 
been  founded  slowly  by  the  prudence  and  sta- 
bility of  its  councils,  the  courage  of  its  armies, 
the  abnegation  of  its  chiefs,  until,  having  become 
master  of  the  world,  it  bent  under  the  very 
weight  of  its  greatness,  and  lost  in  corru23tion 
all  the  public  liberties  which  had  formed  its 
glory  and  its  welfare.  Nothing  of  this  remained 
when  Jesus  Christ  came  into  the  world,  save  a 
few  already  dishonored  symbols,  and  when  he 
died  the  empire  had  passed  from  Augustus  to 
Tiberius  by  a  decadency  which  foreshadowed 
Nero.  The  orators'  tribune  was  mute,  the  people 
consoled  themselves  for  the  loss  of  the  Forum 
with  a  crust  of  bread  thrown  to  them ;  the  sen- 
ate, mangled  and  decimated  in  its  last  illustrious 
men,  opposed  to  despotism  only  the  promptitude 
of  an  obedience  which  sometimes  even  wearied 
the  insolent  caprice  of  the  master.  A  single 
man  was  all,  and  that  man  could  hurl  with  im- 
punity any  defiance  to  servitude.  One  day,  it 
pleased  him  to  assemble  the  senate,  that  is  to 
say,  the  relics  of  all  the  great  Roman  families, 
the  descendants  of  those  conscript  fathers  who 
had   borne  war  and   liberty  so  proudly  within 


109 


tlie  folds  of  their  togae ;  it  pleased  liiin  to  call 
tliem  together  to  deliberate  about  the  composi- 
tion of  a  fish  sauce !  I  thank  you,  gentlemen, 
for  refraining  from  laughter ;  this  is  the  greatest 
insult  which  has  ever  been  offered  to  human 
nature  in  the  person  of  the  greatest  political 
body  it  has  ever  produced.  God  permitted  it, 
gentlemen,  in  order  to  teach  us  how  low  man 
falls  by  the  corruption  of  riches  and  apostacy 
from  liberty,  that  guardian  of  all  rights  and  of 
all  duties.  Such,  then_,  was  Rome  when  Jesus 
Christ  sent  his  disciples  to  convert  her  to  him- 
self, and  such  was  with  Rome  the  whole  universe. 
Mistress  of  the  world,  after  having  enchained 
nations  to  her  greatness  she  held  them  enchained 
to  her  humiliations  ;  and  for  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  human  race  liberty  had  no  longer 
an  asylum  upon  earth. 

I  say,  for  the  first  time.  Until  then,  by  a 
providence  worthy  of  all  our  thanksgivings,  God 
had  so  provided  that  there  was  always  some  free 
land  where  virtue  and  truth  could  defend  them- 
selves against  the  designs  of  the  stronger. 
Whilst  the  east  was  fertile  in  tyrannies,  Egypt 
possessed  institutions  worthy  of  esteem,  and 
judged  her  kings  after  their  death;  Greece  de- 


110 


fended  lier  tribune  asrainst  the  ambition  of  tlie 
kings  of  Persia ;  Rome  j^rotected  lier  citizens  by 
laws  whicli  surrounded  their  lives  with  many 
sacred  ramparts.  If  from  ancient  we  pass  to 
modern  times,  we  shall  find  there  the  same  care 
of  Providence  in  not  permitting  despotism  to 
reign  everywhere  at  the  same  time.  The  pres- 
ent world  is  divided  into  three  zones,  the  zone  of 
unlimited  tyranny  which  has  nothing  to  envy 
from  the  most  cruel  histories  of  the  past,  an 
intermediate  zone  where  some  action  is  still  per- 
mitted to  thought  and  to  faith ;  and,  in  fine,  that 
generous  western  zone  of  which  we  form  a  part, 
those  great  kingdoms  of  France,  England,  the 
United  States  of  America,  Spain,  where  rights 
and  duties  have  guarantees;  where  men  speak, 
write,  discuss ;  where,  whilst  power  opj)resses 
the  majesty  of  God  and  man  in  distant  regions, 
we  defend  it  before  the  world,  and  we  defend  it 
without  glory,  because  nothing  in  that  office 
menaces  either  our  heads  or  our  honor  ! 

A  unique  moment  arrived  when,  with  a  map 
of  the  world  open  before  you,  you  would  have 
sought  in  vain  for  a  mountain  or  a  desert  to 
shelter  the  heart  of  Cato  of  Utica,  and  when 
Cato  of  Utica  thought  it  necessary  to  ask  from 


Ill 


deatli  that  liberty  which  no  spot  upon  earth 
could  any  longer  give  to  him.  At  that  unique 
and  terrible  moment,  Jesus  Christ  sent  his  apos- 
tles to  announce  the  Gospel  to  every  creature, 
and  to  found  in  their  faith,  love,  and  adoration, 
the  kingdom  of  souls  and  of  truth. 

Let  us  see  what  this  kingdom  was  to  the 
Roman  empire. 

First,  it  was  the  liberty  of  the  soul.  Jesus 
Christ  claimed  the  soul;  he  claimed  that  it 
should  be  free  to  know  him,  to  love  him,  to 
adore  him,  to  pray  to  him,  to  unite  with  him. 
He  did  not  admit  that  any  other  than  himself 
had  right  over  the  soul,  and  above  all  the  right 
of  hindering  the  soul  from  communicating  with 
him.  Yet  much  more  ;  Jesus  Christ  claimed  the 
public  union  of  souls  in  his  service;  he  knew 
nothing  of  secrecy;  he  demanded  a  patent  and 
social  worship.  The  liberty  of  the  soul  im- 
plied the  right  to  found  material  and  spiritual 
churches,  to  assemble,  to  pray  together,  to  hear 
in  common  the  Word  of  God,  that  substantial 
food  of  the  soul  which  is  its  daily  bread,  and 
of  which  it  can  be  deprived  only  by  an  act  of 
sacrilegious  homicide.  The  liberty  of  the  soul 
implied  the  right  of  practising  together  all  the 


112 


ceremonies  of  public  worship,  of  receiving  tlie 
sacraments  of  eternal  life,  of  living  together  by 
tlie  Gospel  and  Jesus  Christ.  None  upon  earth 
possessed  any  longer  the  government  of  sacred 
things  but  the  anointed  of  the  Lord — the  elect 
souls  —  initiated  into  a  larger  faith  and  love, 
tested  by  the  successors  of  the  apostles,  sancti- 
fied by  ordination.  All  the  rest,  princes  and 
peoples,  Avere  excluded  from  the  administration 
of  the  body  and  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  di- 
vine centre  of  the  kingdom  of  souls,  and  which 
it  was  not  meet  to  deliver  to  dogs,  according 
to  the  forcible  expression  of  the  most  gentle 
Gospel. 

But  as  the  soul  is  the  basis  of  man,  by  crea- 
ting the  liberty  of  the  soul,  Jesus  Christ,  at  the 
same  time,  created  the  liberty  of  man.  The 
Gospel,  as  the  regulator  of  the  rights  and  duties 
of  all,  rose  to  the  power  of  a  universal  charter, 
which  became  the  measure  of  all  legitimate 
authority,  and  which,  in  hallowing  it,  preserved 
it  from  the  excesses  into  which  human  power 
had  everywhere  fallen.  On  this  account,  the 
kingdom  of  souls  was  absolutely  the  very  oppo- 
site of  the  Roman  empire,  and  it  was  impossible 
to  imagine  a  more  complete  antagonism.      The 


113 


Roman  empire  was  universal  servitude;  tlie 
kingdom  of  souls,  universal  liberty.  Between 
them  it  was  a  question  of  being  or  not  being. 
The  struggle  was  inevitable ;  it  was  to  be  a 
deadly  struggle. 

Now,  what  force  did  the  kingdom  of  souls 
dispose  of  against  that  empire  covered  with 
legions?  None.  The  Forum  ?  It  was  no  more. 
The  senate  ?  It  was  no  more.  The  people  ? 
They  were  no  more.  Eloquence  ?  It  was  no 
more.  Thoug:ht  ?  It  was  no  more.  Was  it  at 
least  permitted  to  the  first  Christians  whom  the 
Gospel  had  raised  up  in  the  world  to  gather  one 
against  a  hundred  thousand  for  the  combat? 
No,  that  was  not  permitted  to  them.  What 
then  was  their  strength  ?  The  same  that  Jesus 
Christ  had  before  them.  They  had  to  confess 
his  name  and  then  to  die,  to  die  to-day,  to- 
morrow, the  day  after,  to  die  one  after  another, 
that  is  to  say,  to  vanquish  servitude  by  the 
peaceful  exercise  of  the  liberty  of  the  soul ;  to 
vanquish  force,  not  by  force,  but  by  virtue.  It 
had  been  said  to  them:  If  for  three  centuries 
you  can  boldly  say  —  "I  believe  in  God  the 
Father  Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth, 
and  in  Jesus  Christ,  his  only  Son  our  Lord,  who 


114 


was  born  of  tlie  Virgin  Mary,  was  dead,  and  is 
risen  again ; "  if  for  three  centuries  you  can  say 
this  openly,  and  die  daily  after  having  declared 
it,  in  three  centuries  you  shall  be  masters,  that  is 
to  say,  free. 

And  this  was  done. 

And  this  was  done  in  sj^ite  of  the  fury  of  the 
Koniau  empire  converting  the  universe  into  a 
headsman,  and  losing  its  terrified  reason  in  the 
emptiness  of  its  cruelties.  I  will  say  no  more  of 
the  martyrs ;  they  conquered,  as  the  whole  world 
knows.  And  this  kingdom  of  souls  founded  by 
their  blood,  this  kino-dom  of  souls  which  was  to 
destroy  idolatry,  and  which  has  destroyed  it, 
which  was  to  overthrow  the  Roman  empire,  and 
which  has  overthrown  it  in  all  that  was  false 
and  unjust  in  it ;  where  did  this  kingdom  of 
souls  set  up  its  capital  ?  In  Rome  !  The  seat  of 
virtue  was  placed  in  the  seat  of  power;  the  seat 
of  liberty  in  the  seat  of  bondage ;  in  the  seat  of 
shameful  idols  the  seat  of  the  cross  of  Jesus 
Christ;  in  the  seat  whence  the  orders  of  Nero 
issued  to  the  world,  the  seat  of  the  disarmed  and 
aged  pastor,  who,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ, 
whose  vicar  he  is,  spreads  throughout  the  world 
purity,  peace,  and  blessing.     O  triumph  of  faith 


115 


and  love  !  O  spectacle  which  enraptures  man 
above  himself  by  showing  him  what  he  can  do 
for  good  with  the  help  of  God !  My  own  eyes 
have  seen  that  land,  the  liberator  of  souls,  that 
soil  formed  of  the  ashes  and  blood  of  martyrs ; 
and  why  should  I  not  recur  to  remembrances 
which  will  confirm  my  words  in  re-invigorating 
my  life  ? 

One  day,  then,  my  heart  all  trembling  with 
emotion,  I  entered  by  the  Flamini'an  gate  that 
famous  city  which  had  conquered  the  world  by 
her  arms  and  governed  it  by  her  laws.  I  hurried 
to  the  Capitol ;  but  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Capi- 
tolinus  no  lonsjer  crowned  its  heroic  summit,  I 
descended  to  the  Forum;  the  orator's  tribune 
was  broken  down,  and  the  voices  of  herdsmen 
had  succeeded  to  the  voices  of  Cicero  and  Hor- 
tensius.  I  mounted  the  steep  paths  of  the 
Palatine :  the  Caesars  were  gone,  and  they  had 
not  even  left  a  praetorian  at  the  entry  to  ask  the 
name  of  the  inquisitive  stranger.  Whilst  I  was 
pondering  those  mighty  ruins,  through  the  azure 
of  the  Italian  sky,  I  perceived  in  the  distance  a 
temple  whose  dome  appeared  to  cover  all  the 
present  grandeurs  of  that  city  upon  whose  dust 
I  trod.     I  advanced  towards  it,  and  there,  upon  a 


116 


vast  and  magnificent  space,  I  found  Europe  as- 
sembled in  tlie  persons  of  lier  ambassadors,  her 
poets,  her  artists,  her  pilgrims — a  throng  diverse 
in  origin,  but  united,  it  seemed,  in  common  and 
earnest  expectation.  I  also  waited,  when  in  the 
distance  before  me  an  old  man  advanced,  borne 
in  a  chair  above  the  crowd,  bareheaded  and 
holding  in  his  two  hands,  under  the  form  of 
mysterious  bread,  that  man  of  Judsea  aforetime 
crucified.  Every  head  bent  before  him,  tears 
flowed  in  silent  adoration,  and  upon  no  visage 
did  I  see  the  protestation  of  doubt,  or  the 
shadow  of  a  feeling  which  was  not,  at  least, 
respectful.  Whilst  I  also  adored  my  Master  and 
my  King,  the  immortal  King  of  souls,  sharing  in 
the  triumph,  without  seeking  to  exjoress  it  even 
to  myself,  the  obelisk  of  granite  standing  in  our 
midst  sang  for  us  all,  silent  and  enraptured,  the 
hymn  of  God  victorious :  Christ[js  vincit,  Cheis- 

TUS  KEGNAT,  ChRISTUS  IMPEEAT,  ChEISTUS  AB  OMNI 
MALO      PLEBEM      SUAM     LTBEEAT  !         And,     lest      au 

enemy  should  have  been  found  in  that  multi- 
tude, it  answered  itself  by  another  celebrated 
hymn,  which  warned  us  to  fly  from  the  lion  of 
Judah  if  we  would  not  adore  him  in  his  victory. 
After  many  years,  which  have  already  whitened 


117 


my  brow,  I  repeat  to  you  tliose  threats  and  tliose 
songs  of  joy;  happy  are  you  if  you  do  not  fly, 
but  if,  drawing  nearer,  you  I'epeat  with  us  all, 
children  of  Christ  and  members  of  his  kingdom : 
Christus  vincit,  Cheistus  eegnat,  Cheistus  im- 
PEEAT,  Cheistus   ab    omni    malo   plebem  suajm 

LIBEEAT  ! 


THE  PERPETUITY  AND  PROGRESS  OF  THE 
REIGN  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


My  Lord — Gentlemen, 

According  to  Ms  design  and  according  to  Ms 
declaration,  Jesus  CMist  established  upon  eartli 
the  kingdom  of  God,  the  kingdom  of  souls ;  he 
established  it,  notwithstanding  the  difficulty  of 
reigning  over  men  by  faith,  love,  and  adoration, 
and  notwithstanding  the  public  difficulty  which 
the  state  of  political  and  religious  society  then 
presented  to  him.  But,  gentlemen,  to  enable  us 
to  affirm  that  Jesus  Christ  has  outlived  himself 
as  God,  is  it  enough  that  his  work  is  stam|)ed 
with  a  character  which  can  be  only  divine  ?  No  ; 
for  although  his  success  was  prodigious,  regard- 
ing it  at  the  point  where  we  left  it,  namely,  at 
the  accession  of  Constantine,  yet  it  is  the  lot  of 
every  power  that  makes  its  appearance  here 
below  to  have  its  struggle  and  its  triumph — a 
struggle  and  a  triumph,  I  grant,  not  all  of  the 
same  measure,  but  which  have,  at  least,  this  in 
common,  that  they  appear,  contend,  and-  reach  a 


119 


favorable  moment,  which  will  be  called  success. 
What  is  more  difficult  and  more  necessary  for  the 
confirmation  of  victory  is  to  resist  victory  itself. 
A  celebrated  diplomatist  has  said :  "  Time  is  the 
great  enemy."  Has  Jesus  Christ  then  overcome 
the  great  enemy  ?  After  idolatry,  after  the  Ro- 
man empire,  has  he  overcome  that  other  power, 
which  is  but  eternity  disguised,  the  power  of 
time  ?  At  the  end  of  a  more  or  less  prosperous 
career,  has  he  not,  like  all  the  rest,  felt  that  icy 
hand,  which  sooner  or  later  dishonors  the  great- 
est events,  and  hurls  the  most  stable  dynasties 
from  their  throne  ?  Is  he  not  visibly  struck  by 
that  slowly  advancing  thunderbolt  which  spares 
nothing  ?  Such  is  the  question  which  now  claims 
our  attention.  In  a  word,  I  am  about  to  lay  be- 
fore you  the  balance-sheet  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  I 
invite  you  to  examine  it. 

Why  is  time  the  great  enemy  ?  Because,  gen- 
tlemen, it  is  endowed  with  a  double  power,  the 
power  of  destroying  and  of  building  up.  What 
was  it  that  overthrew  those  primitive  empires  of 
Assyria  and  Chaldea?  It  was  time.  What 
overthrew  that  empire  of  Cyrus,  vainly  raised  up 
again  by  Alexander?  It  was  time.  What  over- 
threw that  empire,  increased  by  the  ruins  of  all 


120 


tlie  otliers,  and  whicli  we  sliould  ratlier  call  the 
world  than  an  empire,  the  Koman  world  ?  It 
was  time.  What  overthrew  all  those  republics 
of  the  middle  ages  whose  vestiges,  surviving  in 
marbles  and  paintings,  we  so  much  admire?  It 
was  time.  And,  on  another  hand,  what  has  built 
up  those  new  kingdoms  whose  sons  we  are,  the 
kingdoms  of  the  Franks,  the  Germans,  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  and  the  rest  ?  It  is  the  same  hand,  skil- 
ful in  creating  after  having  destroyed,  and  which, 
from  the  very  dust  where  it  has  revelled  with  so 
much  pride,  draws  forth  substance,  order,  and 
solidity.  Time  destroys  with  one  hand  and 
rebuilds  with  the  other,  enemy  alike  to  both, 
since  the  edifice  it  raises  up  does  but  sink  deeper 
the  edifice  it  overthrows,  for,, with  time,  to  found 
is  also  to  destroy. 

Nevertheless,  gentlemen,  let  us  not  halt  at 
those  splendid  images,  which  only  reveal  to  us 
the  inimical  power  of  time  by  outward  appear- 
ances. Let  us  endeavor  to  unveil  its  secret  by 
analysis,  in  order  that,  having  learned  whence 
time  derives  its  double  power  of  destruction  and 
edification,  we  may  consider  whether  Jesus  Christ 
has  not  been  subject  to  the  exercise  of  that  for- 
midable action,  and  why  he  alone  has  been  able 


121 


to  escape  from  it,  should  we  at  lengtli  prove  that 
he  has  escaped  from  it. 

The  action  of  time  results  from  five  causes,  the 
first  of  which  is  novelty.  Time  is  always  young, 
and  yet  it  ages  all  things.  Each  of  its  steps 
is  the  advance  of  dawn,  but  it  leaves  darkness 
and  night  behind.  Restless  child  of  eternity,  it 
borrows  unfading  youth  there,  but  has  no  power 
to  communicate  it,  save  but  for  a  moment,  to  the 
things  measured  by  its  course.  It  passes,  it 
sheds  life ;  but  that  life  of  to-day  soon  becomes 
that  of  yesterday,  of  the  day  before,  of  bygone 
times,  a  remembrance,  a  relic  of  the  past,  and 
yet  time  is  not  impoverished ;  it  is  ever  fertile 
and  young,  causing  the  new  to  follow  the  old. 
Now,  the  new  possesses  a  charm  which  seduces 
the  mind  as  well  as  the  senses,  and  which  ena- 
bles doctrines  bearing  its  impress  easily  to  pre- 
vail against  doctrines  become  superannuated  by 
the  simple  fact  of  their  duration.  Remark  what 
happens  around  us.  As  soon  as  a  man  is  able  to 
give  a  new  form  to  ideas,  and  appropriate  them 
to  the  course  of  time,  he  inevitably  has  disciples. 
Why  ?  Because  he  has  said  something  which 
had  not  been  said  before,  or  had  been  forgrotten. 
We  have  the  passion  for  novelty  in  ideas  as  in 
6 


122 


all  the  rest,  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand 
why  it  is  so.  Predestinated  as  we  are  to  enjoy 
the  infinite,  the  infinite  is  our  want,  and  we  pur- 
sue it  everywhere.  Now,  novelty  is  the  only 
thing  here  below  which  gives  us  some  sensation 
of  the  infinite.  As  soon  as  we  have  considered 
an  object,  we  say:  It  is  enough.  Who  will  turn 
the  page  ?  Novelty  turns  it,  and  in  turning  it, 
disguises  its  feebleness  to  our  intelligence  by  a 
false  gleam  of  progress,  which  enchants  us. 

Above  all  others,  gentlemen,  Jesus  Christ  had 
to  fear  this  inclination  of  our  souls,  which  arms 
time  with  a  power  so  dangerous  to  doctrinal  ster- 
ility. Plowever  merciful  the  Gospel  may  be,  it 
was  not  to  bend  to  the  inconstancy  of  our 
mind  ;  "  Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,"  said 
Jesus  Christ,  "  but  my  words  shall  not  pass 
away."  *  It  was  to  traverse  all  ages,  losing  daily 
the  force  of  its  novelty  without  losing  any  of  its 
precept,  or  rather,  like  God,  who,  said  Saint  Au- 
gustin,  is  beauty  ever  ancient  and  ever  new,  the 
evangelic  word  was  to  infuse  into  its  progres- 
sive antiquity  a  youthfulness  which  should 
charm  the  heart  of  all  new  generations. 

This   first   advantage   obtained   over   time,    a 

1  St.  Matt.  xxiv.  35. 


123 


second  remaiued  to  be  gained.  The  second 
power  of  time  is  in  experience,  that  is  to  say, 
in  the  revelation  that  results  from  the  applica- 
tion of  doctrines  to  the  positive  life  of  mankind. 
Every  doctrine  is  a  body  of  laws,  which  is  of 
value  only  in  so  much  as  it  is  considered  to  con- 
tain true  relations  of  beings;  it  is  like  the  crea- 
tion of  a  world.  As  long  as  that  creation  re- 
mains in  the  mind  in  the  state  of  pure  concep- 
tion, we  may  be  deceived  as  to  its  real  merits, 
because  it  is  difficult  to  judge  a  great  assemblage 
of  ideas;  but  it  is  no  longer  so  when,  entering 
into  the  domain  of  reality,  they  are  required  to 
found  or  to  maintain  a  positive  order;  experi- 
ence- infallibly  manifests  their  weakness  or  their 
falsity;  for  a  false  or  powerless  law  is  incapable 
of  establishing  durable  relations,  and  as  a  house 
based  upon  false  mathematical  principles  falls  to 
the  ground,  so  no  order  whatever  could  subsist 
based  upon  ideas  wanting  the  equilibrium  of 
truth. 

Now,  who  had  ever  more  reason  to  fear  this 
terrible  test  of  experience  than  Jesus  Christ  ? 
For,  with  the  Gospel,  he  had  not  placed  in  the 
world  a  society  confined  within  the  nari'ow 
limits  of  a  race  and  a  country,  but  a  universal 


124 


society,  wlierein  every  soul,  wlieresoever  born, 
could  claim  tlie  rights  of  citizenship ;  and  conse- 
quently, if  the  Gospel  were  false,  its  ruin  should 
have  been  as  great  as  the  universe,  and  as  rapid 
as  time,  acting  at  once  uj)on  numberless  places 
and  minds. 

The  third  power  of  time  is  in  corruption. 
Everything,  having  reached  a  certain  point  of 
j)rosperity,  decays,  because  as  soon  as  man  is 
master  he  wills  to  enjoy,  and  because  the  inevi- 
table result  of  enjoyment  is  that  decomposition 
of  the  soul  and  body  which  we  call  corruption. 
The  history  of  all  successes  is  the  history  of 
Hannibal  at  Capua.  Men  grow  listless  and  for- 
getful, they  think  themselves  secure,  they  become 
intoxicated  with  success ;  the  slow  poison  of  ease 
relaxes  all  the  springs  of  their  activity ;  and  the 
being  who  is  nothing  save  by  activity,  falls  little 
by  little  into  the  shame  of  slumbering  effemi- 
nacy. Nimrod  begins,  Sardanapalus  ends.  It  is 
the  high  road  of  great  fortunes ;  labor  and  vir- 
tue form  them,  enjoyments  annihilate  even  their 
last  traces.  Religion,  even  more  than  any  other 
empire,  is  subject  to  this  great  law,  and  above 
all  the  Church,  or  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ, 
was  firmly  chained  to  it.     For  the  blood  of  the 


125 

cross  had  given  her  life ;  having  sprung  from  the 
crucifixion  of  a  God,  she  could  not  fail,  in  the 
days  of  her  prosperity,  to  remember  the  cruel 
humiliations  of   her   cradle.      And,  on  another 
hand,  the  temptations  which  her   triumph  pre- 
pared for  her  were  far  to   surpass  any  tempta- 
tions until  then  known.      She  was  to   see  the 
kings  of  the  earth  at  her  feet,  to  issue  orders 
from  one  end  of  the  world  to  the  other,  to  be- 
hold ages  bending  before  her  teaching  and  her 
action,  to  cover  the  earth  with  sumptuous  mon- 
uments, and  see  it  become  a  tributary  to  all  the 
wants  of  unlimited  power  and  glory ;  and  under 
the   weight   of  such    success,  reaching   even   to 
heaven,  to  preserve  upon  her  brow,  as  in  her 
heart,  the  sign  of  penance  and  humility.     Or,  if 
in  one  of  the  long  days  of  her  life  she  was  about 
to  yield,  and  to  feel  the  attack  of  corruption, 
from  that  very  corruption  she  was  to  resuscitate 
her  life,  not  another  life — as  we  see  in  nature — 
but  her  own  life ;  and,  like  the  eagle  of  Scrip- 
ture, recovering  the  charm  of  her  youth,  soar 
aloft  with   outstretched  wings,  invigorated    and 
renewed  by  her  very  poverty  and  by  the  shed- 
ding of  her  own  blood. 

The  fourth  power  of  time  is  chance,  that  is  to 


126 


say,  certain  conjunctures  whicli  do  not  blend  with 
anything  that  genius  is  able  to  combine  and  fore- 
see, and  which  suddenly  overthrow  the  most 
ably  concerted  designs.  History  is  full  of  these. 
Human  prudence  makes  shipwreck  upon  shoals 
imperceptible  to  the  keenest  eye.  It  is  the 
grain  of  sand  of  which  Pascal  speaks,  which 
one  morning  threw  Cromwell  into  disorder,  and 
destroyed  plans  destined  to  change  the  face  of 
Europe. 

You  sometimes  wonder,  perhaps,  at  a  certain 
equilibrium  visible  in  the  world,  and  which 
keeps  the  strong  from  destroying  the  weak  at 
will.  Why  have  those  great  empires  not  yet 
crushed  the  small  neighboring  states  ?  It  is  be- 
cause those  great  empires  have  Cromwell's  grain 
of  sand  against  them.  At  the  very  moment 
when  their  combinations  are  ready  to  succeed 
and  bring  about  the  destruction  of  all  rights 
upon  earth,  the  obscure  son  of  some  peasant,  in 
the  corner  of  a  hut,  sharpens  his  knife  on  a 
broken  millstone ;  at  the  noise  of  war  he  dons 
his  cap,  slips  his  knife  into  his  girdle,,  and  goes 
out  to  see  something  of  what  is  passing  between 
Providence  and  the  kings  of  the  earth.  The 
smoke  of  powder  opens  his  eyes ;  the  sight  of 


127 


blood  elates  him ;  God  makes  liim  the  instru- 
ment of  a  brilliant  action ;  behold  him  a  great 
captain ;  empires  recede  a  step  before  him ;  that 
knife,  that  peasant,  is  chance. 

Judge  now  how  much  of  this  Jesus  Christ  has 
had  to  encounter  in  the  course  of  a  reign  of 
eighteen  hundred  years.  Consult  simply  the 
history  of  the  papacy,  and  see  what  a  slender 
thread  has  held  the  destinies  of  that  throne, 
always  surrounded  by  enemies,  yet  always  en- 
during. It  has  constantly  had  to  contend  against 
the  most  skilful  combinations ;  but  what  is  still 
more  terrible  is  that  conspiracy  of  chance,  that 
enemy  which  might  at  any  time  have  destroyed 
it,  and  which,  strange  to  say,  has  always  re- 
spected it. 

The  fifth  power  of  time  is  war.  No  earthly 
power  can  avoid  combat ;  it  necessarily  has  ene- 
mies, not  only  on  account  of  its  faults  and  abuses, 
but  by  the  sim|)le  fact  of  its  existence.  To  exist 
is  to  combat,  because  to  exist  is  to  take  from  the 
common  seat  of  life  a  j^art  of  the  substance  des- 
tined for  all;  and  if  this  be  true  of  the  most 
feeble  being,  how  much  more  so  must  it  be  of 
an  assemblage  of  beings  raised  to  the  state  of 
power !     Therefore  Jesus  Christ  declared  "  that 


128 


he  came  not  to  send  peace,  but  war," '  a  terrible 
war,  and  upon  a  scale  so  vast  as  to  astound  our 
imagination.  For  it  is  the  war  of  the  spirit 
ao;ainst  the  flesh  and  of  the  flesh  a£:ainst  the 
spirit,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  two  elements  which 
constitute  man,  neither  of  which  can  ever  com- 
pletely vanquish  the  other.  When  the  body  is 
victorious  the  soul  struggles  against  it,  and  when 
the  soul  is  the  stronger  the  body  watches  for  the 
moment  when  its  yoke  may  be  broken.  But  this 
internal  struggle  does  not  cease  here,  it  neces- 
sarily produces  a  war  as  general  as  it  is  deeply 
seated.  Souls  unite  with  souls,  and  bodies  with 
bodies;  it  is  the  union  of  bodies  against  the 
union  of  souls  which  forms  the  great  war  of  man- 
kind. Jesus  Christ  at  the  head  of  one  army,  and 
Satan  at  the  head  of  the  other ;  the  army  of  the 
passions,  pride,  sensuality,  hatred,  on  one  side ; 
the  army  of  the  spirit,  humility,  chastity,  obedi- 
ence, mortification,  charity,  on  the  other.  All 
these  are  in  action  in  the  formidable  regions  of 
the  finite  and  the  infinite,  in  the  depths  of  God, 
of  the  soul,  and  of  the  senses,  amidst  a  thousand 
secondary  causes  which  add  to  the  gloom  and 
the  chances  of  the  struggle ;  and  if  Jesus  Christ 

>  St.  Matt.  X.  34. 


129 


be  God,  lie  must  in  tlie  end  be  victorious,  Ms 
form  remaining  unchangeable,  although  continu- 
ally insulted,  upon  the  venerable  summit  of  time 
and  things. 

Has  it  been  so,  gentlemen  ?  Can  we  testify  of 
Jesus  Christ  that  he  has  been  more  powerful 
than  novelty,  than  experience,  than  corruption, 
than  chance,  than  war,  than  all  these  causes 
banded  together  against  him  during  a  course  of 
aighteen  centuries  ?     Can  we  do  this  ? 

Yes,  gentlemen,  I  can  do  this ;  I  can  even  show 
you  three  degrees  in  this  triumph  of  Jesus  Christ 
over  time.  For,  in  the  first  place,  he  lives,  his 
work  is  before  you ;  although  it  has  undergone 
more  or  less  of  attack  in  that  long  pilgrimage 
under  the  rebel  hand  of  time,  it  is  nevertheless 
still  before  you.  It  remains  surrounded  by  suffi- 
cient glory  to  attract  all  eyes,  and  to  be  still  the 
object  of  veneration  to  which  there  is  no  rival, 
as  nothing  is  comparable  to  the  hatred  of  the 
enemies  who  have  not  accepted  in  its  temporal 
duration  the  proof  of  its  origin  in  the  very  bosom 
of  eternity.  But  this  is  not  all.  Not  only  is 
Jesus  Christ  living  in  his  Church  and  his  Church 
in  him,  but,  since  the  Christian  era,,  no  religious 
establishment  has  been  founded  in  the  world  of 
6* 


130 


wliicli  Jesus  Christ  lias  not  been  tlie  basis  and 
the  bond  of  union. 

The  first  in  the  order  of  time  is  Islamism. 
Now,  the  basis  of  Islamism,  as  Grotius  long  ago 
remarked,  is  entirely  biblical.  It  is  Abraham, 
Isaac,  Jacob ;  it  is  Moses,  Mount  Sinai,  the  Jew- 
ish people  in  the  most  memorable  events  of  its 
history;  it  is  Jesus  Christ  himself,  come  after  the 
j^rophets  and  greater  than  they.  At  each  page 
of  the  Koran,  Mahomet  inscribes  a  recital  drawn 
from  Christian  antiquities  or  makes  some  allu- 
sion to  them.  Why  is  this?  Why  is  it  that, 
aspiring  to  the  honor  of  founding  a  religion, 
Mahomet  did  not  base  it  entirely  upon  himself? 
Why,  gentlemen  ?  Because  he  could  not.  Man 
can  no  more  build  in  the  air  in  the  order  of 
spirits  than  in  the  order  of  bodies;  he  must 
however  find  a  basis.  Now,  according  to  the 
expression  of  Fontenelle,  "  the  Christian  religion 
is  the  only  religion  which  possesses  proofs,"  and 
wherever  it  has  appeared  with  the  authority  of 
its  history,  error  must  take  its  support  and  be 
grafted  into  that  mighty  trunk  which  alone 
throws  out  its  roots  in  antiquity.  Mahomet  lived 
in  an  age  and  in  a  land  already  impregnated  with 
the  sap  of  Christianity ;  he  touched  Abyssinia,  a 


131 


great  seat  of  Christendom,  Egypt,  a  metropoli- 
tan churcli,  Judaea,  where  all  the  great  Christian 
mysteries  were  accomplished ;  the  blood  of  his 
people  remounted  with  omnipotent  celebrity  to 
the  blood  of  Abraham ;  he  could  only,  in  such 
conditions,  found  a  heresy,  or,  if  you  prefer  it, 
establish  himself  upon  Jesus  Christ  by  an  infi- 
delity which  still  rendered  immense  homage  to 
him.  This  is  why  Mussulmans  have  always  per- 
mitted Christians  to  live  in  their  territory,  and 
adore  Jesus  Christ,  not  from  toleration  resulting 
from  fear,  but  from  respect  for  the  common  tradi- 
tions of  the  two  religions  and  the  formal  recom- 
mendations of  the  Koran.  There  has  been  a 
struggle  for  supremacy  between  Mussulmans  and 
Christians;  but  there  has  been  no  persecution, 
properly  so  called,  of  Christians  by  Mussulmans. 
Ishmael  reclaimed  only  his  right  of  primogeni- 
ture over  Isaac.  And  this,  gentlemen,  explains 
to  you  the  strange  spectacle  which  Constanti- 
nople now  presents  to  us,  where,  although  the 
penalty  of  death  is  decreed  against  any  Christian 
who  should  convert  a  Mussulman,  Christians  of 
every  communion  have  nevertheless  full  liberty 
to  exercise  their  worship,  even  publicly. 

After  Islamism  came  the  Greek  schism.     Now 


132 


tlie  Greek  scMsm  is  the  whole  Catholic  Church 
save  two  points — the  supremacy  of  the  sovereign 
Pontiff  and  the  procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
All  the  rest,  dogmas,  morals,  sacraments,  hie- 
rarchy, customs,  have  been  preserved  by  the  de 
scendants  of  Photius.  They  have  rejected  the 
vicar  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  they  have  not  rejected 
Jesus  Christ.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  object  of  their 
faith,  their  love,  and  their  adoration,  the  corner- 
stone of  their  religious  edifice. 

It  is  the  same,  although  in  a  minor  degree, 
with  Protestantism.  Protestantism  has  denied 
the  Church,  but  not  Jesus  Christ.  Jesus  Christ 
remains  the  doctor  and  king  of  souls,  and  even 
for  a  great  number  of  Protestants  he  is  still  the 
only  Son  of  God,  worthy  as  such  of  supreme 
adoration. 

No  other  religious  establishment  has  been 
raised  up  in  the  world  since  the  Christian  era. 
Brahminism  and  Buddhism  were  anterior  to 
Jesus  Christ ;  and  if  some  movement  was  visible 
in  the  last  of  these  at  a  nearer  epoch,  it  was 
owing  to  the  intercourse  between  Christians  and 
the  distant  regions  of  India  and  Tartary.  Thus, 
in  the  mountains  of  Thibet,  since  our  celebrated 
embassies  of  the  middle  ages,  a  puerile  imitation 


133 


of  the  papacy  lias  been  witnessed.  Jesus  Christ 
no  sooner  dawned  upon  the  world  than  his  light 
caused  the  clouds  of  false  religions  to  recede ; 
many  have  entirely  disappeared,  and  none  has 
been  formed  but  upon  his  name  and  history. 
He  has  become  the  trunk  of  error  as  well  as  of 
truth,  and  whoever  totally  denies  him  opens  an 
abyss  for  himself  where  nothing  but  death  will 
ever  fructify.  His  tomb  is  now  the  centre  of  the 
religious  world ;  Mussulmans,  Greeks,  Protest- 
ants, Catholics,  guard  it.  All  gathered  together 
from  the  four  winds  of  heaven,  aoiree  to  vener- 
ate  the  inanimate  stone  upon  which  the  mangled 
body  of  Christ  for  three  days  and  nights  reposed. 
A  hundred  battles  have  been  fought  around  it ; 
the  destinies  of  the  world  have  a  score  of  times 
changed  their  aspect  there  ;  but  defeat  or  victory 
has  ever  borne  to  it  the  homaa^e  of  nations,  and 
so  many  struggles  have  but  served  to  glorify  that 
fragile  tomb  where  all  come  to  prostrate  them- 
selves. If  Catholics  alone  had  guarded  it,  it 
would  have  been  an  ordinary  protection,  like  all 
the  rest  that  is  measured  by  the  sword  ;  it  was 
more  fitting  to  the  designs  of  God  that  Jerusalem 
"  should  be  trodden  under  foot  of  nations," '  as 

'  Isaiah  v.  5. 


134 


the  Gospel  had  foretold,  and  that  the  Holy 
Sepulchre,  held  up  by  a  thousand  hands,  should 
appear  amidst  all  the  events  as  the  indicative 
sign  that  no  religious  establishment  is  thence- 
forth possible  save  on  condition  of  participating 
in  Christ  by  something  at  least  of  his  blood,  his 
doctrine,  and  his  memory. 

Time,  gentlemen,  will  bring  you  new  proofs  of 
this.  You  will  see  the  fading  away  of  the  mis- 
erable vestiges  of  religions  without  foundation, 
as  the  civilization  advances  of  which  Jesus  Christ 
is  the  creator  and  the  head.  Fable  cannot  keep 
ground  against  history,  antiquity  empty  against 
antiquity  filled,  the  vague  against  the  certain, 
death  against  life.  Jesus  Christ  pursues  his 
course  even  by  the  very  unfaithfulness  which 
pride  brings  to  him ;  he  makes  use  of  schisms 
and  heresies  as  of  tainted  water  which  still  con- 
tains him  for  a  multitude  of  souls  armed  against 
poison  by  the  simplicity  of  ignorance  and  good 
faith.  But  at  the  same  time  —  and  this  is  his 
third  triumph  over  time  —  he  maintains  incor- 
ru]3tible  and  above  all  his  true  Church,  the  Cath- 
olic, Apostolic,  Roman  Church.  He  ensures  to 
her  even  a  numerical  superiority;  for  Islamism 
counts  but  a  hundred  millions  of  followers,  the 


135 


Greek  scliism  sixty  millions,  Protestantism  a  like 
number,  whilst  tlie  Catholic  Churcli  holds  a  hun- 
dred and  sixty  millions  of  souls  subject  to  her  gov- 
ernment.     Hierarchical  superiority;  for  neither 
Islamism,  nor  the  Greek  schism,  nor  Protestant- 
ism has  been  able  to  create  a  papacy.     Superi- 
ority of  independence ;  for  no  spiritual  commu- 
nity has  been   able  to  preserve   inviolable  the 
sanctuary  of  the  soul,  save  the  Catholic  Church, 
which,  by  constantly  giving   her   inexhaustible 
blood  for  that  cause,  has  kept  her  teaching  and 
her  action  free  from  the  yoke,  and  has  merited 
the  honor  of  being  here  below  the  bulwark  of 
right  and  the  virgin  soil  of  holy  liberty. 

I  shall  not  enlarge  further,  gentlemen,  upon 
the  marks  of  the  true  Church  of  Jesus  Christ. 
I  have  already  done  this,  and  I  hastily  refer  to 
it  now  only  to  demonstrate  the  sovereign  provi- 
dence by  which  Jesus  Christ  has  maintained 
them  on  the  brow  of  his  Church  against  all 
the  efforts  of  time. 

Thus  then  a  threefold  perpetuity  is  acquired 
for  Jesus  Christ  from  the  scrutiny  to  which  we 
have  subjected  him;  perpetuity  of  life,  perpe- 
tuity of  exclusive  irradiation  of  life,  perpetuity 
of  superiority  in  life. 


"N^ 


136 


But  you  may  reply:  This  is  not  questioned. 
Jesus  Christ  has  lived ;  he  has  infused  his  life 
into  fill  religious  establishments  which  have 
come  after  him,  and  he  has  even  maintained  his 
Church  above  all  the  rest.  Yet  do  you  not  now 
perceive  signs  of  decadency  in  his  work  ?  Have 
not  a  multitude  of  souls  emancipated  themselves 
from  his  rule  ?  And  when  signs  of  decrepitude 
begin  to  appear,  may  we  not  foresee  a  near  and 
an  inevitable  dissolution  ? 

This  may  be  your  idea,  gentlemen ;  mine  is 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  at  the  apogee  of  his  glory 
and  power;  and  this,  with  the  help  of  God,  I 
shall  now  proceed  to  show  you. 

Three  things  constitute  power,  and  the  progress 
of  these  three  things  constitutes  the  progress  of 
power,  namely,  the  territorial  state,  the  numeri- 
cal state,  and  the  moral  state.  Now,  I  affirm 
that,  under  this  threefold  relation,  Jesus  Christ 
has  never  attained  a  higher  point  than  that  at 
which  we  at  present  contemplate  him. 

In  the  first,  place,  what  was  the  territorial 
state  of  Jesus  Christ  under  Constantine  ?  It  was 
nearly  included  even  in  the  boundaries  of  the  em- 
pire, between  the  Rhine,  the  Euphrates  and  the 
Atlas.      If  it  passed  beyond,  that  addition  was 


137 


compensated  for  by  tlae  many  parts  of  the  empire 
of  wliicli  the  Gospel  held  but  an  imperfect  and 
uncertain  possession.  But  what  do  you  now  see  ? 
It  is  true  Jesus  Christ  has  lost  some  of  his 
former  territories,  now  occupied  by  Mussulmans ; 
although  it  must  be  remarked  that  Christians 
exist  upon  the  whole  surface  of  the  Islamic  soil, 
and  that  Islamism  itself  recognizes  Jesus  Christ 
and  his  ancestors.  But  turn  your  eyes  to  the 
west,  to  the  east,  to  the  north,  to  the  south,  and 
in  every  direction  of  the  globe  you  will  find  the 
conquering  steps  of  the  Saviour.  He  has  crossed 
the  Rhine  ;  he  has  subjected  Germany,  Poland, 
all  the  Russias,  the  three  kingdoms  of  Great 
Britain,  and  has  borne  even  to  the  pole,  across 
the  mountains  and  ices  of  Sweden,  the  sun  of 
his  dominion.  The  Atlantic  Ocean  opened  be- 
fore him  ;  he  has  passed  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
has  joined  to  the  sceptre  of  his  children  that 
famous  peninsula  of  India,  which  from  antiquity 
was  looked  upon  as  the  reservoir  of  all  the  treas- 
ures of  nature.  He  has  founded  establishments 
along  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  rejoined  by  the 
Red  Sea  his  old  possessions  of  Abyssinia.  He 
has  made  the  tour  of  the  two  Americas,  and 
from  one  pole  to  the  other,  ranging  them  under 


138 


his  laws,  he  has  raised  up  together  republics, 
missions,  and  bishoprics.  He  has  retaken  Spain 
from  Mahomet,  and  everywhere  shaken  the  terri- 
tory of  Islam.  But  yesterday,  again,  when  the 
chief  of  the  house  of  Bourbon  was  descending 
from  the  throne  and  about  to  carry  his  noble  old 
age  into  exile,  we  saw  Jesus  Christ,  by  the  arm 
of  the  old  Frank  king  who  thus  wrote  his  testa- 
ment among  us,  conquer  two  kingdoms  from  infi- 
delity, the  kingdoms  of  Greece  and  Algeria. 
Still  more  recently,  China  has  opened  to  him  her 
ports,  which  had  so  long  been  shut ;  New  Hol- 
land becomes  peopled  under  the  shadow  of  his 
cross  ;  the  islands  of  Oceania  transform  their 
savage  inhabitants  into  humble  and  meek  adorers 
of  his  Gospel.  There  are  no  longer  any  seas,  or 
solitudes,  or  mountains,  or  inaccessible  places 
where  Jesus  Christ  does  not  hoist  the  bold  stand- 
ards of  his  children  blended  with  his  own. 

Return  now  back  to  Constantine  ;  weigh  the 
Christian  world  of  that  epoch  with  the  Christian 
world  of  the  present  time,  and  judge  of  the  ter- 
ritorial progress  which  Jesus  Christ  has  made. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  numerical  state.  I  said 
just  now  that  the  Catholic  Church  counts  a  hun- 
dred and  sixty  millions  of  children,  the   Greek 


139 


schism  sixty  millions,  Protestantism  sixty  mil 
lions  more.  This  is  a  total  of  two  hundred  and 
eighty  millions  of  men  who  acknowledge  Jesus 
Christ  for  their  Saviour  and  their  spiritual  head. 
Doubtless,  there  are  some  among  these  who  do 
not  bear  his  yoke  from  clear  and  positive  convic- 
tion; but  the  Christian's  life  must  be  judged  as 
a  whole,  and  especially  at  the  hour  of  death. 
Among  the  many  who  think  themselves  unbeliev- 
ers there  are  few  who  resist  Christ  to  the  last, 
and  who  do  not  ask  him  to  forgive  their  errors 
much  more  than  their  apostacy.  Their  soul, 
moreover,  was  formed  by  the  Gospel,  and  it  is 
still  their  nourishment  even  when  they  think 
they  despise  it.  The  numerical  state  of  Jesus 
Christ  was  never  more  flourishing,  and  it  daily 
tends  to  increase  by  the  development  of  Chris- 
tian populations.  Whilst  the  Mahometan  races 
become  impoverished  and  the  remains  of  the 
idolatrous  nations  vegetate  in  their  immobility, 
the  Christian  blood,  blessed  by  God,  prospers 
beyond  measure,  and  continual  emigrations  carry 
its  superabundance  into  distant  lands,  and  with 
it  the  precious  seeds  of  faith. 

If  you  perceive  a  disproj^ortion  between  the 
territory  and  the  population  of  Jesus  Christ,  it 


140 


is  easy  to  be  explained.  The  power  of  Chris- 
tians grows  yet  faster  than  their  blood;  the}^ 
conquer  and  govern  space  with  a  handful  of  men, 
and  their  genius  fills  it  long  before  their  pos- 
terity. I  do  not  think  this  observation  is  preju- 
dicial to  Jesus  Christ.  But  there  is  another 
which  you  certainly  exj)ect  from  me,  and  which 
I  also  expect  from  you.  Whatever  may  be  the 
state,  say  you,  of  the  territorial  and  numerical 
progress  of  Jesus  Christ — a  phenomenon  which 
may  be  explained  by  the  ascendancy  of  the 
Christian  races — you  cannot  deny  the  invasion 
and  progress  of  unbelief  in  the  very  midst  of 
Christianity.  If  Jesus  Christ  has  overthrown 
the  religions  which  were  before"  his  own,  unbe- 
lief, more  powerful  than  he,  overthrows  in  its 
turn  the  work  which  he  had  built  up,  and  over- 
throws it  with  still  more  terrible  effects,  since  it 
is  doubt  and  negation  which  take  the  place  of 
faith.  Like  those  lands  exhausted  by  a  sub- 
stance that  has  devoured  all  their  sap,  and  which 
can  no  longer  produce  anything,  the  land  over 
which  Christ  has  passed  is  a  land  cursed,  it  no 
longer  produces  anything  but  doubt  and  nega- 
tion. Thus  we  advance  to  a  state  worse  than 
any  of  which  mankind  has  been  the  witness  and 


141 


the  victim.  Like  that  conqueror  who  caused 
Jerusalem  to  be  razed  and  salt  to  be  cast  upon 
its  ruins,  Christ  has  exhausted  the  convictions  of 
the  human  race,  and  cast  wpon  its  intelligence 
the  salt  of  absolute  unbelief.  Woe  to  us,  doubt- 
less, woe  to  us  who  can  no  longer  believe  I  But 
to  whom  do  we  owe  that  incapacity,  if  not  to 
the  tyranny  of  Christ,  who  has  not  been  power- 
ful enough  to  bend  forever  our  minds  to  his 
dogmas,  and  who  is  powerful  enough  to  keep  us 
from  ever  holding  any  other  faith  than  his  own  ? 
I  grant,  gentlemen,  that  after  seventeen  centu- 
ries during  which  Jesus  Christ  was  not  denied, 
he  was  at  length  denied  in  the  last  century ;  he 
is  denied  even  now.  But  so  far  fi'om  that  acci- 
dent menacing  the  work  of  Christ,  it  derives  a 
glory  therefrom,  which  it  will  be  easy  for  you  to 
recognize  and  appreciate.  Three  countries  formed 
the  seat  of  the  total  revolt  against  Jesus  Christ 
— England,  France  and  Germany.  As  to  Eng- 
land, unbelief  has  long  ago  ceased  to  possess  any 
power  or  renown  there.  If  your  ears  are  atten- 
tive to  the  echoes  of  the  British  Parliament,  that 
highest  of  all  expression  of  national  opinions, 
you  will  not  have  heard,  since  the  birth  of  the 
present  century,  a  single  word  of  insult  or  men- 


142 


ace  to  Christ.  England  Las  emancipated  Catho- 
lics ;  she  has  recalled  to  the  tribune  of  her  Par- 
liament the  proscribed  voices  of  the  defenders  of 
the  papacy;  she  has  oj^ened  her  fields  to  the 
labor  of  monks,  and  her  schools  to  the  learning 
of  the  Koman  clergy.  The  old  walls  of  Oxford 
have  heard  the  most  celebrated  doctors  of  An- 
glicanism speaking  of  Jesus  Christ  like  the 
ancient  Church,  they  have  witnessed  the  retreat 
of  many  who  have  passed  from  the  rostrum  to 
the  humble  cell,  there  to  recite  the  office  after 
the  manner  of  the  religious  orders,  and  to  pray 
at  the  foot  of  a  crucifix  for  the  return  of  their  soul 
and  of  their  country  to  the  old  faith  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons.  Catholic  churches,  and  even  cathedrals, 
have  risen  up  full  of  splendor  from  the  land  of 
proscription,  and  Jesus  Christ  has  marched  tri- 
umphantly with  his  bishops  and  priests  in  the 
very  places  where  stones  and  the  sword  had  pur- 
sued him.  In  fine,  England  is  won  back  from 
unbelief,  she  who  was  the  first  to  shelter  it  under 
the  protection  of  her  nobles  and  her  men  of 
genius. 

If  we  turn  next  to  France,  doubtless  we  shall 
not  find  there  in  the  same  fulness  the  signs  of  a 
return  to  faith.     Yet  none  of  you,  knowing  the 


143 


history  of  tlie  past  and  the  present,  would  com- 
pare the  two  positions.  In  the  last  century, 
unbelief  was  absolute  mistress  of  minds,  alone  it 
guided  the  pen  and  spoke  with  eloquence ;  its 
books  were  public  events,  its  great  men  ranked 
with  the  old  families  of  the  monarchy,  and  held 
familiar  intercourse  with  all  the  kings  of  Europe  ; 
a  flagrant  and  an  overwhelming  conspiracy  hurled 
to  heaven  every  insult  against  Jesus  Christ.  Is 
it  so  now,  gentlemen  ?  Has  not  Jesus  Christ  his 
writers,  his  orators,  his  party,  his  youth,  his  glory, 
among  us?  And  if  unbelief  still  exists,  do  we 
not  well  know  how  to  make  it  bend  before  us, 
and  how  to  march  on  in  the  strength  of  our 
souls  against  its  now  decrepit  successes  and  its 
ill-judged  expectations?  We  do,  gentlemen  ;  the 
watchword  of  the  faith  in  all  its  most  militant 
action  comes  from  France ;  our  missionaries,  our 
sisters  of  charity,  our  brothers  of  the  Christian 
schools,  bear  it  to  the  ends  of  the  world,  and 
whoever  loves  Jesus  Christ  upon  earth  keeps  his 
hand  upon  our  heart  to  feel  there  the  pulsations 
of  faith,  and  to  thank  the  God  who  strikes  and 
who  heals. 

I  shall  say  nothing  of  Germany ;  she  remains, 
doubtless,  although  with    certain   modifications, 


144 


tlie  seat  of  the  war  against  Jesus  Cbrist.  Our  un- 
believers go  there  to  seek  the  arms  which  the 
genius  of  France  refuses  to  them  yet  more  and 
more  ;  but  the  fall  is  great,  and  the  thunder  that 
comes  from  the  clouds  of  the  Rhine  is  not  destined 
to  produce  such  effects  as  that  double  voice  of 
England  and  France,  whose  future  alliance  in 
favor  of  the  Church  and  Jesus  Christ  the  great 
Comte  de  Maistre  has  long  ago  foretold. 

However,  gentlemen,  let  us  not  be  content  with 
proving  by  facts  the  progressive  decrease  of  the 
forces  of  unbelief;  let  us  endeavor  to  trace  its 
causes  in  order  to  draw  conclusions  which  may 
embrace  the  future  as  well  as  the  past. 

God,  then,  seeing  the  darkness  of  men's  minds, 
has  caused  three  suns  to  rise  slowly  upon  the 
horizon  of  the  Church :  the  sun  of  history,  the 
sun  of  science,  and  the  sun  of  liberty.  History 
was  ill-understood ;  great  research,  aided  by  great 
social  revolutions,  has  enlightened  its  sombre 
mysteries,  and  Jesus  Christ,  calumniated  in  the 
works  of  his  Church,  has  retaken  in  the  realities 
of  the  world  a  place  which  men  willed  to  dis- 
honor. Whilst  history  returned  to  him  by  the 
labors  of  Protestants  and  unbelievers,  as  much  as 
by  those  of  Catholics,  science  did  not  serve  him 


145 


witli  a  lesser  return  of  justice  and  fidelity.  Did 
it  dig  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  it  found  again 
there  the  first  page  of  Moses ;  did  it  descend  to 
the  foundations  of  the  temples  and  monuments 
of  Egypt,  it  found  there  the  points  of  junction 
between  Egyptian  history  and  the  history  of  the 
people  of  God  ;  did  it  succeed  in  decijDhering  the 
language  of  hieroglyphics,  those  signs,  recalled 
to  the  vigor  of  their  expression,  bore  testimony 
to  the  newness  of  the  world,  compromised  by  the 
calculations  of  astronomy;  did  it  discover  and 
bring  to  light  ruins  and  inscriptions,  those  ruins 
and  those  inscriptions  spoke  for  us ;  nature  inter- 
rogated in  every  sense,  gave  back  a  Christian 
note  from  all  its  pores,  as  if  it  had  been  created 
or  charmed  by  Jesus  Christ. 

Liberty  also  has  rendered  us  signal  services. 
It  has  loosened  the  bonds  with  which  unbelief 
had  bound  the  Church  by  the  hand  of  kings, 
and  permitted  Jesus  Christ  to  resume  the  sceptre 
of  speech,  too  long  enfeebled  from  respect  which 
was  no  longer  merited. 

Unbelief    has,   however,   received    a    heavier 

blow  than  all  these.     For  the  causes  I  have  just 

enumerated  act  only  in  the  higher  ranks  of  the 

world;  they  do  not  strike  at  the   heart  of  the 

7 


146 


human  race,  and  that  central  shock  is  necessary 
to  all  extended  action.  The  centre  of  the  world, 
the  heart  of  the  human  race,  is  the  people.  The 
people  then  should  have  had  a  sign  against  unbe- 
lief, and  that  sign  was  given  to  them  in  order 
that  nothing  might  be  wanting  to  the  causes  of 
salvation  which  God  prepares  for  us.  What 
sign  then  was  given  to  the  people  ?  What  sign, 
gentlemen  ?  It  is  this :  the  soul  and  the  bod}^ 
of  the  people  have  gained  nothing  from  unbelief, 
and  they  know  it.  The  people  had  a  God  in 
heaven;  when  the  earth,  so  sparing  towards 
them,'  overtasked  their  strength,  they  clasped 
their  hands,  and  in  looking  upwards  and  in 
appealing  to  God  from  their  very  wretchedness, 
they  felt  dignity  and  consolation  reaching  to 
them.  The  people  had  a  God,  not  only  in 
heaven,  but  nearer  to  them,  a  God  who  had 
become  man  and  was  poor,  who  was  born  in  a 
stable,  whose  body  had  been  laid  upon  straw, 
and  who  had  suffered  in  this  life  more  than  they. 
The  people  had  a  God,  not  in  heaven  only,  not 
only  in  the  flesh  and  in  poverty,  but  they  had  a 
God  upon  the  same  cross  which  they  themselves 
bear,  and  when  they  beheld  themselves  with 
their  two  arms  extended  in  their  suffering,  they 


147 


found   on  their  right  hand  their  God  who  was 
crucified  for  them,  and  who  bore  them  company. 
The  people  had  a  God,  not  only  in  heaven,  not 
only  in  their  flesh,  in  their  poverty,  and  in  their 
own  cross,  but  they  had  a   God  living  in  the 
Church  to  teach,  to  protect,  and  to  console  them ; 
they  had  a  God  living  in  their  priest  to  receive 
the  oppressive  secrets  of  their  hearts  ;  they  had 
a  God  living  in  the  sister  of  charity  to  bind  up 
their  wounded  limbs  when  they  could  no  longer 
serve  them,  and  to  honor  their  souls  in  the  mis- 
eries of  their  bodies.     The  people  had  a  God  in 
heaven  and  upon  earth :    you  have  taken  away 
from  them  the  God  of  heaven,  and  you  have  not 
preserved  for  them  the  God  of  earth.    What  then 
did  you  give  them  in  his  stead  ?      What  other 
God  have  you  made  for  them  ?    Ah  !  I  am  wrong, 
for  God  you  have  given  them  doubt,  and  for  god- 
dess negation  !     You  said  to  them  :  "  Perhaps ! " 
And  finding  that  too  much,  you  spoke  again  with 
authority,  and  said :  No  !    Why  should  they  com- 
plain ?    There  is  no  longer  any  God,  or  Christ,  or 
Gospel,  or  Church ;  but  you  remain  to  them,  and 
with  you  the  worms  which  brought  them  into  the 
world,  and  the  worms  which  will  prey  upon  their 
dead  bodies.     Is  not  this  enough  to  satisfy  a  soul  ? 


148 


Perhaps,  unable  to  bear  tlie  sight  of  that  mer- 
ciless spoliation  wrought  by  your  hands,  you  will 
turn  to  the  bodies  of  the  people  and  boast  of 
what  they  owe  to  you,  for  the  temporal  well- 
being  which  you  have  procured  for  them  in 
exchange  for  what  they  have  lost.  Ah !  I  ex- 
pected as  much  from  you  !  The  bodies  of  the 
people !  But  listen  to  the  sounds  which  rise 
from  Manchester,  Birmingham,  Flanders,  the  cry, 
not  of  poverty  and  want — they  are  the  words 
and  things  of  bygone  times — but  the  cry  of  pau- 
perism ;  that  is  to  say,  the  cry  of  distress  having 
reached  the  state  of  system  and  power,  and  rising, 
by  an  unexpected  malediction,  from  the  very  de- 
velopment of  wealth  itself.  The  political  econ- 
omy of  unbelief  has  been  destroyed  by  facts  upon 
every  seat  of  human  enterprise  and  activity ;  it 
still  struggles  against  these  results,  as  terrible  as 
they  were  unlooked  for;  but  it  is  the  hydra  of 
Lerne  against  the  arm  of  Hercules ;  the  blow 
which  it  has  received  is  a  mortal  blow  because  it 
has  been  dealt  by  the  hand  of  the  people  ! 

In  a  w^ord,  the  bodies  and  the  souls  of  the 
people  have  gained  nothing  from  unbelief,  and 
the  people  know  it. 

But  if  you  have  done  nothing  as  yet  for  the 


140 


souls  and  bodies  of  the  people,  perhaps  it  is  to 
come,  perhaps  you  will  some  day  set  up  a  doc- 
trine in  the  place  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ !  I 
must  deprive  you  of  that  last  hope  ;  and  without 
even  trusting  to  the  nothingness  of  your  past 
efforts,  I  must  show  you  that  it  is  impossible  for 
you  to  found  a  doctrine.  In  fact,  unbelief  rests 
upon  two  general  principles,  of  which  this  is  the 
first:  man  should  not  believe  in  man,  because 
one  man  is  as  good  as  another,  and  his  most  pre- 
cious treasure  is  the  independence  of  his  mind. 
Your  second  principle  is  :  man  should  not  be- 
lieve in  God,  because  God  does  not  sj)eak  to  man. 
But  if  man  ought  neither  to  believe  in  God  nor 
in  man,  in  whom  then  should  he  believe  ?  Your 
answer  is :  in  himself,  and  in  himself  alone. 
Now  wherever  men  believe  only  in  themselves, 
there  are  no  disciples ;  where  there  are  no  disci- 
ples, there  is  no  master ;  where  there  is  no  mas- 
ter, there  is  no  unity ;  where  there  is  no  unity, 
there  is  no  doctrine.  You  would  not  then  found 
a  doctrine,  even  had  you  a  thousand  years  multi- 
plied by  another  thousand  before  you.  If  you 
quit  the  principles  of  unbelief,  at  that  very  mo- 
ment you  fall  back  upon  Jesus  Christ,  the  only 
possible  master  for  whosoever  acknowledges  an 


150 


authority,  because  without  him  there  is  nothing 
which  holds  together  upon  any  foundation. 

But  after  all  let  us  admit  that  you  may  found 
a  doctrine.  Even  should  you  succeed  it  would 
not  be  sufficient  to  dethrone  Jesus  Christ ;  your 
doctrine  must  be  more  perfect  than  that  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Now  listen  to  what  I  have  just  experi- 
enced. Three  months  ago  I  read  for  your  sake 
the  author  who  in  this  age  seems  to  have  had  the 
distinction  of  writing  against  Jesus  Christ  with 
the  greatest  boldness,  if  not  with  the  greatest 
ability,  I  mean  Dr.  Strauss.  After  having,  with 
heated  forehead,  waded  through  four  large  vol- 
umes of  transcendental  weariness,  as  the  Ger- 
mans say,  I  reached,  at  length,  the  last  chapter, 
entitled  Conclusion.  There  Dr.  Strauss,  starting 
from  the  idea  that  Jesus  Christ  is  completely 
vanquished,  asks  himself  whether  some  man, 
capable  of  equalling  and  even  of  surpassing  Jesus 
Christ,  will  not  appear  upon  the  empty  stage  of 
mankind.  That  question  asked,  a  kind  of  tardy 
and  eloquent  justice  seizes  upon  the  author,  and, 
in  a  page  which  I  read  again  more  than  once,  the 
only  one  in  which  the  soul  makes  itself  felt,  he 
declares  that  it  is  not  probable  that  any  man 
will  ever  be  able  to  equal  Jesus  Christ,  but  he 


151 

is  absolutely  certain  that  no  man  will  ever  sur 
pass  him. 

Such  is  the  conclusion. 

To  sum  up,  gentlemen,  I  find  in  Jesus  Christ  a 
threefold  perpetuity :  perpetuity  in  his  life,  per- 
petuity in  the  exclusive  irradiation   of  his  life, 
perpetuity  in  the  superiority  of  his  life.     I  also 
find  in  him  a  threefold  progress :  progress  in  the 
territorial  state,  progress  in  the  numerical  state, 
progress  in  the  moral  state.      Jesus  Christ  has 
then  overcome  time ;  he  has  overcome  the  great 
enemy,  and,  beholding  him  upon  the  summit  of 
ao-es  in   all   the    serenity  of  his   imperturbable 
youth,  I  remember  what  Saint  Paul  said  of  him 
in  another  sense:  "Christ  risen  from  the  dead, 
dieth  no  more."  '     Once  he  descended  into  the 
tomb  ;  but  the  human  race,  for  whom  he  died, 
bent  towards  him,  and,  raising  him  up  with  a 
love  which  has  never  grown  cold,  bears  him  in  its 
hands,  risen  again  to  life.      Behold  him,  gentle- 
men, examine  him  well,  he  lives !      Look  again, 
he  dieth  no  more,  he  is  young,  he  is  King,  he  is 
God !     He  lived  as  God,  he  has  outlived  himself 
as  God ;  to-morrow  I  will  show  you  that  he  pre- 
existed as  God.     Nothing  will  then  be  wanting 

1  Bom.  vi.  9. 


152 


to  that  threefold  act  of  life — living,  surviving, 
pre-existing ;  nothing  will  be  found  in  him  which 
is  not  stamped  with  the  seal  of  divinity,  and 
which  hinders  me  from  proclaiming  with  the  sov- 
ereignty of  certainty  that  other  expression  of 
Saint  Paul :  "  Jesus  Christ  was  yesterday,  he  is 
to-day,  and  the  same  forever  !  "  ' 

»  Heb.  xiii.  8. 


THE  PRE-EXISTENCE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


My  Loed — Gentlemen", 

All  life  is  not  yet  comprised  in  living  and 
in  outliving  that  life ;  the  third  act  of  life,  which 
is  the  first  in  the  order  of  time,  is  that  of  pre- 
3xistence.  Every  being,  save  God,  pre-exists  in 
its  germ,  and  man  in  particular  pre-exists  in  his 
ancestors.  No  one  appears  here  below  whose 
reign  has  not  been  prepared  long  beforehand ; 
and  the  more  important  the  destiny  designed  for 
him  by  Providence,  the  more  important  also  is 
the  preparatory  action  of  his  ancestors.  Jesus 
Christ,  as  man,  should  therefore  have  pre-existed 
after  the  manner  of  men ;  and,  inasmuch  as  he 
was  greater  than  all  men  by  his  destiny,  he 
should  also  have  pre-existed  in  a  manner  pecu- 
liar to  himself  alone.  I  remark  then,  in  the  first 
place,  that  alone  amongst  all  the  great  names,  he 
possesses  an  authentic  genealogy  which  remounts 
from  him  even  to  the  father  of  the  human  race, 
and  that  he  is  thus,  undoubtedly,  the  first  gentle- 
man in  the  world.  It  is  but  little,  I  grant,  and 
7* 


154 


therefore  his  pre-existence  sliould  not  be  limited 
to  this  alone. 

Ancestry,  we  have  said,  is  j^i'oportionate  to 
posterity.  Whosoever  has  no  ancestry  will  have 
no  posterity,  and  this  explains  to  you  the  weak- 
ness of  doctrines  which  unceasingly  appear  and 
disappear  before  you.  They  begin  in  the  man 
who  advances  them,  and,  beginning  with  him, 
they  die  with  him.  As  soon  as  a  man  without 
antecedents  in  his  teaching,  a  man,  the  last  who 
has  sprung  up  in  this  world,  dares  to  bring  to 
mankind  doctrines  which  he  calls  new,  that 
single  word  is  the  foreboding  of  his  powerless- 
ness  and  the  expression  of  his  condemnation. 
For  if  the  doctrines  claimed  by  him  as  his  own 
possessed  any  importance,  they  would  inevitably 
have  pre-existed  him,  he  Avould  at  most  be  but 
their  renovator ;  to  say  that  an  important  thing 
begins  in  one's  self,  is  to  take  nothingness  for 
starting  point,  for  horizon,  and  for  end. 

But  if  ancestry  be  proportionate  to  posterity, 
it  follows  that  Jesus  Christ  must  have  pre-existed 
in  his  ancestors  with  incomparable  greatness. 
And,  to  speak  more  precisely,  since  Jesus  Christ 
has  had  for  his  posterity  the  most  important 
social  and  religious  work  of   the   times  which 


155 


liave  followed  him,  he  should  also  have  had  for 
his  ancestry  the  most  important  social  and  reli- 
gious work  of  the  times  which   preceded  him. 
The  Catholic  Church  being  the  fruit  of  his  com- 
ing, we  must  find  before  his  coming  something 
that  worthily  prepares  the  Catholic  Church,  and 
that  comprises  Jesus  Christ  between  a  past  and 
a  future— doubtless  not  of  equal  proportions,  but 
so  balanced  that  that  which  preceded  him  was 
beyond  all  comparison  with  the  rest,  as  well  as 
that  which  followed  him.     The  Jewish  people, 
gentlemen,  fulfil  these  conditions.      The  Jewish 
people  was  the  most  important  social  and  reli- 
gious work  of  the  times  preceding  Jesus  Christ, 
as  the   Catholic   Church  is  the  most  important 
social  and  religious  work  of  later  times ;  and,  as 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  soul  of  the  Catholic  Church,  in 
which  his  life  is  perpetuated,  so  he  was  the  soul 
of  the  Jewish  people  in  whom  he  pre-existed.     I 
must  explain  this  double  proposition  to  you,  and 
so  succeed  in   surrounding  the   sacred   head  of 
Christ  with  all  the  promulgatory  rays  of  his  di- 
vinity. 

That  the  Jewish  people  was  the  greatest  social 
and  religious  work  of  antiquity,  I  shall  not,  I 
think,  have  much  difficulty  in  proving.     Let  us 


156 


begin  by  its  suj)eriority  in  tlie  social  point  of  \^ew. 
Legislation  is  the  highest  element  of  the  life  of  a 
people,  and,  in  legislation,  the  first  point  to  con- 
sider is  the  constitution  of  the  law  itself.  Now 
the  Hebrew  law  possesses  two  characters  which 
belong  to  it  alone,  and  which  place  it  beyond  all 
comparison,  they  are  universality  and  immutabil- 
ity. It  has  for  its  basis  something  universal, 
namely,  the  general  relations  of  man  with  God 
and  with  mankind.  The  tables  of  Sinai,  which 
form  its  prologue  and  its  fundamental  page,  exist 
even  now  as  the  most  memorable  expression  of  all 
the  great  duties;  and  the  Catholic  Church,  even 
after  the  promulgation  of  the  Gospel,  has  not  been 
able  to  substitute  in  place  of  the  Decalogue  any- 
thing which  she  has  judged  worthy  to  set  it  aside. 
Those  ten  decrees  form  the  basis  of  Christian  mor- 
als, as  they  formed  the  basis  of  Hebrew  morals. 
In  the  second  place,  the  Jewish  law,  although 
including  the  whole  political,  civil,  criminal,  com- 
mercial, judicial,  and  even  ceremonial  order — 
things  essentially  variable  in  their  nature  —  was 
endowed  with  an  immutability  of  which  there  is 
no  other  example  in  any  legislation  whatsoever. 
In  Moses  the  legislative  power  of  the  He1)rews 
began  and  ended.     Whilst  every  human  society 


157 


lias  iu  its  centre  a  permanent  legislative  power 
whicli  retrenches,  adds,  corrects,  according  to  times 
and  necessities,  and  an  exceptional  legislative 
power,  which  goes  so  far  as  to  reform  even  the 
constitution  itself,  affected  by  the  change  of  habits 
and  customs,  the  Jewish  peoj)le,  from  Moses,  re- 
mained contented  in  regard  to  law,  with  a  simple 
regulating  faculty.  The  hand  that  had  graven  the 
tables  of  Sinai  and  penned  that  vast  legislation 
comprised  in  the  Pentateuch  was  strong  enough 
pennanently  to  consolidate  a  whole  nation,  how 
long  soever  it  might  endure ;  and  three  thousand 
years  passed  over  his  work  have  never  once  borne 
to  it  the  slightest  contradiction.  Above  all  others, 
gentlemen,  after  the  last  fifty  years  of  our  history, 
we  can  appreciate  the  superhuman  genius  of  such 
a  foundation. 

The  constitution  of  authority  in  legislature  fol- 
lows in  importance  the  constitution  of  law;  for 
authority  is  the  living  guardian  of  the  dead  text 
of  law.  Now,  what  was  the  constitution  of 
authority  among  the  Hebrews?  It  has  been 
often  said,  if  I  mistake  not,  that  it  was  theocratic ; 
this  is  an  eiTor.  From  the  earliest  times,  Moses 
and  Aaron  divided  the  power ;  one  was  the  mili- 
tary and  civil  chief,  the  other  the  religious  chief, 


158 


and  tliat  distinction  between  the  temporal  and 
spiritual  order — deeply  traced  by  tlie  double  me- 
morial of  the  legislator  and  the  pontiff — con- 
tinues throughout  the  whole  history  of  the  Jew- 
ish people,  not^vithstanding  the  accidental  gather- 
ing of  the  whole  authority  in  one  and  the  same 
hand.  If  the  pontificate  and  the  supreme  judica- 
ture blend  together  in  Samuel,  they  become  sep- 
arated in  the  times  of  Da^dd  and  the  kings ;  if 
they  are  found  united  after  the  captivity,  they  sep- 
arated again  before  Jesus  Christ.  The  Hebraic 
community,  like  the  Catholic  community,  was 
based  upon  the  distinction  between  the  spiritual 
and  the  temporal  powers,  a  distinction  without 
which  a  nation  would  neither  be  able  to  preserve 
truth  nor  liberty.  Truth,  because  being  of  a 
higher  order,  it  could  not  keep  its  place  under  a 
sceptre  transmitted  by  purely  human  means ;  lib- 
erty, because  all  the  social  and  regular  forces, 
being  concentred  under  the  sceptre  of  one  single 
mind  and  one  single  action,  it  becomes  impossible 
for  any  one  to  defend  his  feeble  personality  against 
the  omnipotent  personality  of  the  State.  The  peo- 
ple, crushed  under  the  weight  of  such  a  formidable 
unity,  would  doubtless  ^\Tithe  like  the  giant  under 
the  weight  of  Etna;  but  their   force,  not  being 


159 


united  under  a  stable  and  recognized  organization, 
tlieir  efforts  would  result  only  in  futile  shocks,  by 
whicli,  if  tliey  succeeded  in  overthrowing  the  order 
that  weighed  upon  them,  their  very  victory  would 
still  cost  them  their  liberty,  for  to  destroy  order  is 
also  to  destroy  liberty.  By  the  division  of  power 
into  two  branches,  not  opposed  to  each  other — ^not 
even  rivals,  so  much  do  their  attributes  differ — 
opinion  obtains  a  pacific  support  against  force, 
right  against  oppression,  and  society,  notwithstand- 
ing its  vicissitudes,  being  united  without  violence, 
duly  performs  its  office  for  time  and  for  eternity. 

However,  this  admirable  order  has  nowhere 
been  able  to  establish  itself,  save  among  the  Jew- 
ish people  and  in  nations  entirely  Christian,  that 
is  to  say.  Catholic.  Every^vhere  else,  the  State 
has  not  failed  to  absorb  the  whole  of  human  na- 
ture in  its  rapacious  unity.  And  this,  gentlemen, 
should  not  excite  our  wonder :  the  spiritual  power, 
being  by  its  very  essence  a  disarmed  power,  God 
alone  is  able  to  communicate  to  it  the  inner  force 
which  it  needs  peacefully  to  resist  the  temporal 
power.  Where  God  is  not,  intrigue,  baseness,  fear, 
soon  bend  mind  to  matter;  and  the  spiritual  or- 
der, should  it  still  exist,  remains  but  a  miserable 
phantom,  to  which  the  State  leaves  a  reed  for  seep- 


160 


tre,  contempt  for  protection,  and  a  little  gold  for 
pay.  Inasmuch,  then,  as  the  Jewish  people,  as 
well  as  the  Catholic  nations,  possessed  the  prerog- 
ative of  a  true  spiritual  power,  it  is  stamped  with 
a  character  of  pre-eminence,  which  no  other  peojDle 
can  dispute  Avith  it  in  the  times  anterior  to  Christ. 
The  constitution  of  family  was  not  less  remark- 
able in  the  Jewish  people  than  the  constitution 
of  law  and  authority.  The  individuals  whose 
union  forms  families,  and  whom  we  may  call 
domestic  individuals,  namely,  the  father,  the 
mother,  the  child,  and  the  servant,  stood  there  in 
relations  full  of  order  and  equity.  Moses,  it  is 
true,  did  not  formally  substitute  the  unity  of  the 
conjugal  tie  in  place  of  eastern  polygamy ;  but 
he  instilled  the  practice  of  it  by  establishing  the 
faculty  of  repudiation  for  certain  cases,  by  for- 
bidding the  future  kings  of  Israel  to  have  a 
great  number  of  wives,  like  the  princes  of  the 
East,  and  in  supposing  but  once  only  in  his 
whole  legislation  that  a  man  may  have  two 
wives.  Thus,  save  a  few  examples  noticed  in 
the  course  of  Scripture,  the  Hebraic  family 
appears  to  us,  under  this  head,  in  a  state  analo- 
gous to  that  of  the  Christian  family.  The  unity 
of  marriage  was  a  custom  among  them.      The 


161 


autliority  of  the  father  over  the  chikl  was  great, 
without  extending  to  that  right  over  life  and 
death  which  too  often  made  an  executioner's 
office  of  paternity  among  the  ancients.  The  ser- 
vant belonged  to  the  family  by  virtue  of  a  volun- 
tary agreement ;  no  Hebrew  could  be  the  slave 
of  another  Hebrew;  and  even  engagements  for 
perpetual  service  were  permitted  by  law  only 
after  a  trial  of  seven  years.  The  stranger  alone, 
by  right  of  conquest,  was  liable  to  slavery, 
properly  so  called ;  and  even  this  bondage,  kept 
within  certain  limits,  Avas  far  from  producing 
that  contempt  and  that  abuse  of  man  which  we 
remark  among  the  peoples  anterior  to  Jesus 
Christ.  All  the  Jewish  families  were  ranged  in 
twelve  tribes,  corresponding  to  the  twelve  patri- 
archs, sons  of  Jacob,  and  forming  of  the  nation 
twelve  great  families,  united  in  the  bond  of  the 
same  blood,  and  so  much  the  more  strongly,  as  it 
flowed  from  the  same  father  by  twelve  perfectly 
recognizable  sources.  Nothing  in  antiquity  is 
comparable  to-  this  constitution  of  the  Hebraic 
family. 

It  is  the  same  in  regard  to  the  bases  upon 
which  the  system  of  proprietorship  rested  among 
them.    Houses" and  lands  could  only  be  alienated 


162 


for  a  lapse  of  forty-nine  years.  After  that,  tliey 
returned  to  their  former  possessor  or  to  his  heirs. 
The  object  of  this  singular  arrangement  was  to 
prevent  the  ruin  of  families  and  the  too  great 
inequality  of  fortunes,  without  hindering,  how- 
ever, the  necessary  movement  of  commerce  and 
industry.  The  ricli  man  bought  of  the  unfortu- 
nate or  erring  man  the  whole  or  a  part  of  his 
patrimony,  and  enjoyed  possession  of  it  for  half 
a  century;  but  the  son  or  grandson  of  the 
despoiled  proprietor  cherished  in  his  heart  the 
hope  of  returning  again  to  the  roof  of  his  ances- 
tors. By  a  second  and  no  less  remarkable  regu- 
lation, the  fields  could  not  be  cultivated  more 
than  six  years  in  seven;  they  rested  the  seveutli 
year,  and  all  the  fruit  which  they  bore  naturally 
in  a  land  covered  with  vines  and  olive-trees  be- 
longed to  the  poor,  as  their  share  in  the  common 
patrimony  of  Israel. 

Sucb  was,  in  tlie  most  fundamental  matters,  that 
celebrated  legislation  of  Moses,  the  invulnerable 
stability  of  which  time  has  respected,  and  which 
has  placed  that  great  man  at  the  head  of  all  those 
wlio  liave  had  the  rare  distinction  of  giving  laws 
to  nations. 

But  legislation  is  only  the  first  element  of  the 


163 


life  of  a  people;   art  is  tlie  second.     Legislation 
classes  a  people  in  tlie  order  of  acts,  art  determines 
its  rank  in  tlie  order  of  ideas  and  of  their  expres- 
sion.    Tlie  greater  tlie  idea  the  greater  is  the  visi- 
ble monument  it  raises  up,  and  which  causes  it  to 
subsist  even  after  it  has  perished  in  the  mind  that 
conceived   it.     Now   the   monument   of  Hebraic 
ideas  is  a  booh  which  forms  part  of  the  book  of 
books,  a  book  which  forms  the  preface  to  the  Gos- 
pel, and  which  in  that  illustrious  vicinity  obtains 
respect  as  the  finished  pedestal  of  a  faultless  statue. 
As  history,  the  Hebrew  Bible  precedes  all  histories 
by   its    antiquity,  continuity,   and    authenticity; 
alone  it  mounts  to  the  cradle  of  the  human  race, 
and  lays  down  the  first  stone  of  the  whole  edifice 
of  the  past.     As  a  juridical  compilation,  it  is  vdth- 
out  equal  in  any  of  the  collections  containing  the 
laws  of  great  communities.     As  moral  philosophy, 
it  opposes  its  books  of  wisdom  to  all  the  maxims 
of  the  most  renowned  sages,  and  a  presence  of  God 
is  felt  in  them  which  elevates  the  soul  above  the 
natural  reach  of  reason.     As  poesy,  it  contains  the 
hymns  of  David  and  the  prophets,  repeated  aftei 
two  or  three  thousand  years  by  all  the  echoes  of 
the  Christian  world,  and  become  creators  of  a  Ian 
guage  which  has  passed  into  all  human  tongues 


164 


for  lauding  and  blessing  God.  Other  peoples 
have  had  historians,  jurisconsults,  sages,  poets,  but 
which  are  their  owti,  and  form,  as  it  were,  a  sepa- 
r^ite  glory ;  the  Jewish  j)eople  has  been  the  histo- 
rian, the  jurisconsult,  the  sage,  the  poet  of  man- 
kind. 

Its  teiTitory  also  answered  to  that  great  place 
which  we  behold  it  occupying.  For  the  support 
and  nourishment  of  its  body,  it  had  received  a  land 
equally  illustrious  with  its  legislation  and  its  art. 
Cast  a  glance  upon  a  map  of  the  world,  and  you 
will  quickly  perceive  there  a  j^oint  which  forms 
the  centre  of  Asia,  Africa,  and  Europe;  which, 
washed  by  the  waves  of  the  Mediterranean,' 
touches  by  them  those  healthy  and  genial  cli- 
mates where  in  the  plenitude  of  human  activity 
the  hardy  race  of  Japhet  exercises  its  energy; 
whilst,  on  another  hand,  the  Eiver  Euphrates  and 
the  Gulf  of  the  Red  Sea  open  to  its  iuliabitants 
the  routes  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  j)ermitting  them 
to  seek  under  the  equatorial  zones  those  fabulous 
riches  which  Solomon  explored,  which  Alexander 
desired  to  see,  which  the  Romans  coveted,  which 
the  Middle  Ages  discovered  anew,  which  the  Brit- 
ish power  now  guards  with  such  supreme  jealousy. 
In  close  vicinity  also  to  that  favored  point  of  the 


165 


globe,  you  will  perceive  Memphis,  the  Nile,  the 
Pyramids,  and  those  sublime  deserts  which  to  the 
present  time  have  rebelled  agahist  the  most  cour- 
ageous curiosity,   so  that  its  boundaries  having 
gates  open  to  all,  had  them  also  closed  against  all. 
There,  as  at  an  inevitable  rendezvous  indicated  by 
nature  and  God,  all  the  conquerors  have  appeared. 
The  primitive  monarchies  of  Assur  and  Chaldaea 
unceasingly  sent  there  their  generals.     Alexander 
was  halted  there  before  Tyre,  and  went  to  read 
in  Jerusalem  the  history  of  his  triumphs  writ- 
ten beforehand,  like  those  of  Cyrus;  his  succes 
sors  contested  desperately  for  this  remnant  of  his 
crown ;  the  Eomans  took  possession  of  it ;  all  the 
chivalry  of  the  Middle  Ages  pressed  there  during 
two  hundred  years ;  Napoleon  caused  a  gleam  of 
his  sword  to  shine  upon  its  sands ;   in  fine,  but 
yesterday  the  last  thunder  of  European  cannon 
awakened  the  old  echoes  of  that  proud  land ;  and 
the  discerning  finger  of  those  who  observe  the 
future  points  to  it  as  the  future  battle-ground  foi 
the   combats  reserved   to  our  descendants.     You 
have  named  Syria,  gentlemen,  and  v^th  it  the  ter 
ritory  given  to  the  Jewish  people  as  the  temporal 
complement   of   those   magnificent   graces   which 
they  had  received  in  the  mental  order. 


166 


Nevertheless,  gentlemen,  a  people  is  not  yet  fully 
known  wlien  we  know  its  territory,  its  art,  and  its 
legislation ;  it  is  necessary  also  to  know  its  history. 
Tke  liistory  of  a  people  is  the  course  of  its  acts  for 
the  preservation  of  its  laws,  ideas,  customs,  terri- 
tory, all,  in  fine,  that  constitutes  its  proper  life  and 
civilization.  The  more  magnificent  its  endowments 
the  more  is  it  accountable  towards  God  and  man 
for  the  devotedness  shown  hy  it  in  defence  of  the 
gifts  which  are  not  only  its  personal  patrimony, 
but  which  form  part  of  the  general  dotation  of 
mankind,  and  enter  into  the  plans  by  which 
Providence  conducts  all  things  to  their  end.  And, 
according  as  a  people  acquits  itself  well  or  ill  of 
this  great  task,  it  marks  in  history  its  degree  of 
shame  or  renown.  What,  gentlemen,  has  formed 
the  dignity  of  our  history?  It  is  that  having 
received  from  God  a  territory  which  is  the  heart 
of  Europe,  we  have  held  it  under  faithful  guar- 
dianship for  fourteen  hundred  years,  j)ermittiDg 
none  but  ourselves  to  settle  between  the  Alps 
and  the  Pyrenees ;  it  is  that  having  among  all 
the  barbarous  nations  received  the  firstfruits  of 
the  Catholic  faith,  we  have  preserved  it  to  the 
end,  neither  permitting  this,  the  elder  kingdom 
of    Christendom,  to   be   entirely   corrupted    by 


167 


lieresy  nor  overcome  by  doubt ;  it  is  that  having 
received,  in  fine,  the  most  ancient  and  the  most 
free  monarchy  of  Europe,  we  have  preserved  in 
a  happy  balance,  although  it  has  been  often 
troubled,  the  double  spirit  of  authority  and  lib- 
erty, being  equally  incapable  of  supj^orting  an- 
archy or  absolute  power.  We  have,  in  a  word, 
preserved  in  the  body  of  Europe  a  land  of  faith, 
order,  and  liberty. 

The  Jewish  people  had  yet  greater  duties, 
and  a  more  perilous  position  imposed  upon  it. 
Feeble  in  number,  and  cast  upon  a  part  of  the 
world  which  by  its  position  tempted  all  the 
neighboring  empires,  it  had  to  jjrotect  against 
them,  with  its  independence,  laws  and  traditions 
upon  which  the  destinies  of  the  world  depended. 
No  people  entrusted  with  a  more  precious  charge, 
in  more  favorable  conditions,  has  shown  such 
remarkable  and  persevering  magnanimity  in  de- 
fending it.  Not  to  see  this  would  be  an  act  of 
blindness,  not  to  acknowledge  it  an  act  of  in- 
gratitude. Nineveh,  Babylon,  Memphis,  by  turns, 
and  sometimes  together,  conspired  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  that  handful  of  Israelites ;  innumerable 
armies,  led  by  powerful  kings,  invaded  their 
territory,  and  laid  siege  to  their  capital ;    often 


168 


victorious,  they  often  purchased  tlieir  glory  at 
the  cost  of  cruel  reverses.  Ten  of  tlieir  tribes, 
carried  into  captivity,  have  disappeared  from 
history :  the  two  others  afterwards  followed  the 
same  road  of  exile  from  whence  nations  never 
return.  But  seventy  years  of  adversity  far  from 
their  country  did  not  weary  the  hearts  of  the 
captives ;  by  science  and  beauty  they  penetrated 
into  the  palaces  of  kings,  and  governed  their 
conquerors.  Cyrus  delivers  them,  Alexander 
visits  them,  and  when,  in  the  heart  of  Asia,  a 
new  and  a  more  terrible  persecution  brings  into 
their  temple  the  desolation  of  imj)iety,  they  raise 
up  in  their  midst,  to  save  their  country  and  reli- 
gion, that  race  of  the  Maccabees  whose  name  has 
become  for  peoples  oppressed  by  stronger  than 
themselves  the  very  name  of  courage  and  right. 
And  this  heroic  spectacle,  gentlemen,  lasted  fif- 
teen hundred  years !  For  fifteen  hundred  con- 
secutive years  Israel  held  her  place  against  the 
great  empires  of  the  world ;  and  when  at  length 
Rome  had  surmounted  all  and  subjected  all, 
when  the  whole  earth  had  kept  silence  before 
her  for  more  than  a  century,  Israel  still  struggled 
in  the  mountains  and  valleys  of  Judaea  for  the 
remnants  of  her  liberty.      Rome  was  forced  to 


169 


send  her  legions  and  her  captains  against  such 
memorable  perseverance,  and  Jerusalem,  yet  once 
more  besieged,  sent  up  to  heaven,  in  an  implaca- 
ble defence,  the  last  generous  cry  which  the 
Komans  were  destined  to  hear. 

Was  it  ended,  gentlemen  ?  Did  not  this  peoj)le, 
without  territory  and  without  princes,  wander  to 
die  in  obscurity  upon  the  vast  surface  over  which 
the  still  timid  will  of  their  conquerors  had  scat- 
tered it?  For  any  other,  indeed,  the  hour  of 
death  would  have  come.  But  the  Israelites  remem- 
bered the  days  of  their  captivity,  when  they  hung 
their  harps  upon  the  willows  of  Babylon,  because 
they  could  not  sing  the  songs  of  Sion  in  a  strange 
land ;  as  they  had  then  carried  their  laws  and  tra- 
ditions with  them  to  be  their  eternal  principle  of 
life,  they  again  bore  them  over  the  whole  earth. 
They  demanded  their  subsistence  from  labor,  their 
dignity  from  the  memorials  of  their  ancestors,  their 
consolation  from  the  God  who  had  brought  them 
out  of  Egypt  by  Moses,  out  of  Chaldsea  by  Cyrus, 
and  who  was  able,  when  he  willed,  to  l;)ring  them 
back  again  to  that  Jerusalem  already  raised  from 
its  ruins,  and  become  the  object  of  the  combats  of 
all  Christendom.  This  people,  whom  their  founder 
called  a  hard  people,  and  who  in  fact  opposed  to 
8 


170 


adversity  a  soul  of  granite,  tliis  people  still  lives — 
lives  everywliere,  Disinlierited  froiQ  their  coun- 
try, the  children  of  Israel  have  sought  in  commerce 
that  moveable  wealth  which  may  be  hidden  more 
quickly  than  persecution  advances ;  and  we  now 
see  kings  tributaries  to  their  activity,  unblu  shingly 
recurring  to  the  venerated  purse  of  some  Hebrew 
for  the  accomplishment  of  their  designs  and  the  ag- 
grandisement of  their  glory.  Yet  once  more,  Israel 
lives  ;  she  has  lived  for  seventeen  centuries  with- 
out chief,  without  temple,  without  territory,  often 
persecuted,  but  preserving,  as  in  Jerusalem,  her 
antique  and  immoveable  ideas,  and  having  in  ad- 
dition that  unique  glory  of  subsisting  from  an 
inner  force  sustained  by  nothing  from  without, 
and  which  nourishes  itself  at  the  mysterious  altar 
of  a  superhuman  past.  Do  you  not  see  that  she 
defies  you  ?  That  alone  among  nations  she  counts 
four  thousand  years  of  duration  ?  That  nothing 
prognosticates  the  end  of  such  a  scandal  against 
the  nature  of  things  ?  Dig  out  her  tomb  if  you 
can  ;  set  your  surest  seal  upon  it ;  j^lace  your 
guards  around  it :  she  will  but  laugh  at  you  and 
rise  again,  proving  to  you  yet  once  more  that  she 
lives  of  a  spirit  which  you  have  not,  and  that 
matter  can  do  nought  against  spirit. 


in 


1  have  tlie  riglit  to  conclude,  gentlemen,  that 
the  Jewish  people,  under  the  social  point  of  view, 
is  the  most  important  monument  of  the  times  an- 
terior to  Chi'ist,  It  is  not  less  so  under  the  relig- 
ious point  of  view ;  and  here  I  shall  need  hut  very 
short  observations. 

For,  remark  that  whilst  all  nations  were  plunged 
in  the  darkness  of  idolatry,  Greeks,  Romans,  As- 
syrians, Egyptians,  that  little  people  adored  one 
only  God;  and  antiquity  spake  with  wonder  of 
the  empty  temple  of  Jerusalem,  because  it  did  not 
see  God  represented  there  by  any  image  capable 
of  impressing  the  senses— not  that  such  represen- 
tation is  an  evil  in  itself,  as  long  as  it  does  not 
touch  the  true  character  of  the  Divinity ;  but  the 
Hebrews  had  such  a  horror  of  idols  that  they  pre- 
ferred, according  to  the  order  of  their  legislator, 
to  leave  God  in  their  temple  in  his  total  invisi- 
bility rather  than  expose  their  faith  to  the  impres- 
sive charm  of  some  striking  representation.  For 
idolatry  not  only  attacked  them  from  without,  it 
seized  upon  their  heart,  and  they  often  fell  before 
it.  But,  notwithstanding  this  double  temptation, 
they  never  failed  to  return  to  that  God  of  their 
fathers  of  whom  they  were  the  sole  adorers. 

By  the  dogma  of  creation  they  had  an  idea  of 


172 

liim  wliicli  always  comj^letely  separated  them  from 
idolaters.  These  rendered  no  account  to  them- 
selves of  the  existence  of  the  universe,  or  if  they 
sought  to  penetrate  its  secret,  they  willingly  be- 
lieved it  to  be  contemporary  with  theii^  gods,  giv- 
ing to  them  at  most  some  secondary  action  upon 
universal  substance.  The  Jews  had  quite  another 
doctrine,  expressed  from  the  first  sign  of  their 
sacred  Scriptures  by  that  astounding  phrase :  "  In 
the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the 
earth." '  Had  they  possessed  but  that  single  doc- 
trinal expression,  they  would  have  been  richer  in 
knowledge  of  God  than  all  the  schools  and  all 
the  religions  of  antiquity.  In  a  word,  the  Jew- 
ish people  was  the  only  people  before  Jesus 
Christ  which  had  a  clear  notion  of  the  Divinity, 
and  which  rendered  to  him  a  worship  free  from  the 
puerile  dreams  of  the  imagination  and  the  taint 
of  shameless  sensuality.  I  may  then  conclude 
that  in  the  religious,  as  in  the  social  point  of 
view,  the  Hebrew  nation  was  the  most  important 
monument  of  the  times  anterior  to  Jesus  Christ. 

I  add  that  Jesus  Christ  was  the  soul  of  that 
nation,  and  pre-existed  in  it  by  a  life  which  we 
are  about  to  verify. 

»  Gen.  i.  1. 


173 


I  ouglit  to  have  grown  weary,  gentlemen,  of 
pointing  out  to  you  the  peculiarities  of  the  Jews. 
There  is  one,  however,  which  surpasses  all  the 
rest,  and  of  which  I  have  as  yet  said  nothing.     I 
mean  the  Messianic  idea  which  circulated  in  their 
veins  as  their  purest  blood,  and  without  which  it 
is  impossible  to  explain  either  their  faith  or  their 
destinies.      The  Messianic  idea  is  composed  of 
four  elements.      Under  its  influence,  the  Jews 
believed,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  one  God  and 
Creator  adored  by  them  would  some  day  become 
the  God  of  the  whole  earth.     In  addition,  they 
believed  that  that  revolution  would  be  brought 
about  by  a  single  man  called  the  Messiah,  the 
Holy   One,  the   Just,  the   Saviour,  the   Desired 
of  nations.     They  believed  that  this  man  would 
be  a  Jew  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  and  of  the  house 
of  David.      They   believed,   in    fine,   that    this 
predestinated  man  would  suffer  and  die  in  order 
to  accomplish  the  work  of  transformation  with 
which  Providence  had  charged  him. 

That  such  was  their  faith  it  is  easy  for  us  to 
learn  even  of  themselves,  since  they  still  live, 
and  since,  notwithstanding  four  thousand  years 
of  expectation  which,  in  their  eyes,  has  not  been 
realized,  they  have  never  ceased  to  render  un- 


174 


shaken  testimony  to  the  hopes  of  their  ancestors. 
But,  gentlemen,  let  us  not  be  content  with  their 
present  testimony;  let  us  open  the  monuments 
of  their  history,  and  follow  the  progress  of  the 
Messianic  idea  through  the  principal  phases  that 
mark  the  development  of  the  nation  itself,  such  as 
its  birth,  its  formation  into  a  people,  the  point  of 
its  maturity,  its  decadency,  its  captivity,  and  its 
restoration  at  the  foot  of  the  second  temple,  raised 
up  by  Zorababel. 

Behold  us  in  the  fields  of  Chaldsea  with  Abra- 
ham ;  we  are  about  to  hear  the  first  words,  which 
formed,  as  it  were,  the  seed  of  the  Hebrew  race. 
Observe,  gentlemen,  that  we  are  not  now  examin- 
ing whether  these  words  are  true,  whether  they 
were  from  God  ;  we  have  now  simply  to  show  the 
idea  which  the  Jewish  people  had  of  themselves, 
and  of  their  mission  here  below.  Whether  they 
deceived  themselves  in  this  idea  is  another  ques- 
tion, to  be  judged  afterwards. 

God,  then,  according  to  the  Hebrew  monu- 
ments, says  to  Abraham :  "  Go  forth  out  of  thy 
country,  and  from  thy  kindred,  and  out  of  thy 
father's  house,  and  come  into  the  land  which  I 
will  show  thee  ;  and  I  will  make  of  thee  a  great 
nation,  and  I  will  bless  thee,  and  magnify  thy 


175 


name,  and  tliou  sLalt  be  blessed.  I  will  bless 
them  that  bless  thee,  and  curse  them  that  curse 
thee,  and  in  thee  shall  all  the  kindred  of  the 
earth  be  blessed."  '  Thus,  at  the  same  moment, 
and  in  an  inseparable  manner,  two  thousand 
years  before  Jesus  Christ,  the  Jewish  people  ap- 
peared in  the  world,  and  therewith  the  Messianic 
idea — the  idea  that  Israel  was  the  depositary  of 
a  blessing  wliich  was  to  spread  over  the  whole 
universe. 

Abraham  goes  forth  from  Chaldsea,  and  settles 
in  tlie  land  promised  to  Hs  posterity.     He  waits 
there  even  to  an  advanced  old  age  for  the  son  to 
whom  he  is  to  transmit  tlie  Messianic  heritage ; 
tbat  son  is  given  to  him  ;  and  wlien  tlie  child  has 
attained  all  the  graces  of  youth,  God  calls  upon 
the  patriarch  to  offer   him  in   sacrifice  upon   a 
mysterious  mountain.     With  unshaken  faith  in 
the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  God,  the  old  man 
raises  his  hand  upon  his  only  and  well-beloved 
son,    and    he    hears    that     second     declaration, 
stronger  and  more  distinct  than  tlie  first:  "By 
my  own  self  have  I   sworn,  saith  the  Lord,  be- 
cause thou  hast  done  this  thing,  and  hast  not 
spared  thy  only-begotten  son  for  my  sake ;  I  will 

1  Gen.  xii.  1-3. 


176 


bless  thee,  and  I  will  multiply  thy  seed  as  the 
stars  of  heaven,  and  as  the  sand  that  is  by  the 
sea  shore :  thy  seed  shall  possess  the  gates  of 
their  enemies,  and  in  thy  seed  shall  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth  be  blessed."  '  An  oath  is 
added  to  the  force  of  the  promise ;  and  it  is 
more  clearly  indicated  that  the  Messianic  bene- 
diction should  spread  over  the  whole  human 
race,  not  by  Abraham  himself,  but  by  his  pos- 
terity. 

Isaac,  the  son  of  Abraham,  hears  the  same 
promise  and  the  same  prophecy :  they  are  re- 
peated to  Jacob,  the  son  of  Isaac.  The  three  first 
Hebrew  generations,  thus  confirmed  in  the  hope 
of  the  Messiah,  spread  out  in  twelve  patriarchs, 
fathers  of  twelve  tribes  ;  and  Jacob,  about  to  die, 
assembles  them  around  his  bed  to  close  the  first 
Messianic  age  by  a  solemn  prophecy,  which  sums 
up  the  preceding  ones,  giving,  at  the  same  time, 
additional  precision  to  them.  Surrounded  then, 
by  his  twelve  children,  he  announces  to  each  of 
them,  by  some  characteristic  traits,  what  will  be 
his  lot  in  the  future.  Having  arrived  at  Judah, 
he  says  these  memorable  words  to  him:  "  Judah, 
thee  shall  thy  brethren   praise :  thy  hands  shall 

I  Gen.  xxii.  16-18. 


177 


be  on  tlie  necks  of  tliy  enemies ;  the  sons  of  tliy 
father  shall  bow  down  to  thee.  Juclah  is  a  lion's 
whelp  :  to  the  prey,  my  son,  thou  art  gone  up ; 
resting  thou  hast  couched  as  a  lion,  and  as  a 
lioness :  who  shall  rouse  him  ?  The  sceptre  shall 
not  be  taken  away  from  Judah,  nor  a  ruler  from 
his  thigh,  till  he  come  that  is  to  be  sent,  and  he 
shall  be  the  expectation  of  nations." '  Thus,  at 
the  moment  when  the  patriarchal  inheritance 
becomes  subdivided  into  twelve  branches,  the 
branch  from  which  the  Messiah  is  to  be  born  is 
designated ;  it  is  to  be  that  of  Judah  ;  and  the 
day  predestined  for  the  appearance  of  the  Messiah 
is  marked  by  a  sign  which  posterity  will  easily 
recognize. 

The  blood  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  is 
henceforth  fertile ;  it  multiplies  in  a  land  which 
has  given  it  hospitality ;  and  having  soon  become 
an  object  of  fear  and  jealousy,  it  passes  from  exile 
to  bondage,  in  order  to  serve  in  tribulation  an 
apprenticeship  necessary  to  its  high  destinies. 
Its  enemies  think  to  destroy,  they  do  but 
strengthen  it.  The  Israelites  are  a  people. 
Moses  brings  them  out  of  Egypt,  and  leads  them 
across  the  desert  to  the  foot  of  Sinai,  from  whence 

'  Gen.  xlix.  8-10. 

8* 


178 


come  tlie  laws  which  are  to  govern  them.  Fol- 
low, gentlemen,  follow  that  marvellous  march  of 
so  great  a  people ;  the  eyes  of  your  childhood 
formerly  gazed  upon  its  wonders,  look  at  them 
again  with  the  thought  of  riper  years.  From  en- 
cam]3ment  to  encampment  the  children  of  Israel 
arrive  before  Jordan,  to  the  frontiers  of  that  ter- 
ritory inhabited  by  their  first  ancestors,  and  the 
possession  of  which  is  promised  to  their  posterity. 
There  they  meet  a  whole  people  in  arms  await- 
ing those  adventurers  who  despoiled  Egypt,  and 
whose  march  has  resounded  from  the  desert  even 
to  the  hills  of  Judaea.  Moab  has  ranged  her  bat- 
talions, she  has  raised  her  altars,  convoked  her 
chiefs ;  the  children  of  Israel  are  afoot,  with  their 
wives,  their  children,  their  soldiers,  their  Levites, 
bearing,  hidden  under  the  skins  of  animals,  the 
tabernacle  of  the  God  who  has  just  sj)oken  to 
them  from  Sinai.  A  man  of  the  East  advances  be- 
tween the  two  peoples.  "  Balac,"  says  he,  "  Balac, 
king  of  the  Moabites,  hath  brought  me  from 
Aram,  from  the  mountains  of  the  east:  Come, 
said  he,  and  curse  Jacob ;  make  haste  and  detest 
Israel.  How  shall  I  curse  him  whom  God  hath 
not  cursed?  By  what  means  shall  I  detest  him 
whom  the  Lord  detesteth  not  ?     I  shall  see  him 


179 


from  the  top  of  the  rocks,  and  shall  consider  him 
from  the  hills.  This  people  shall  dwell  alone, 
and  shall  not  be  reckoned  among  the  nations. 
Who  can  count  the  dust  of  Jacob,  and  know  the 
number  of  the  stock  of  Israel?'"  These  unex- 
pected blessings  alarm  Moab ;  the  prophet  is 
implored  to  change  his  language  ;  if  he  will  not 
curse,  they  pray  him  at  least  not  to  bless.  Thrice 
Balaam  opens  his  mouth;  thrice  he  blesses  the 
conquering  people  before  him;  and  at  last  the 
Messianic  prophecy  escapes  from  him  as  in  spite 
of  himself:  "I  shall  see  him,  but  not  now  :  I  shall 
behold  him,  but  not  near.  A  star  shall  rise  out 
of  Jacob,  and  a  sceptre  shall  spring  up  from 
Israel,  and  shall  strike  the  chiefs  of  Moab,  and 
shall  waste  the  children  of  Seth.  .  .  .  Alas  !  who 
shall  live  when  God  shall  do  these  things  ?  They 
shall  come  in  galleys  from  Italy,  they  shall 
overcome  the  Assyrians,  and  shall  waste  the 
Hebrews,  and  at  last  they  themselves  also  shall 
perish." " 

Observe  again,  gentlemen,  that  we  are  not  now 
examinins:  whether  Balaam  was  or  was  not  a 
prophet,  but  simply  showing  the  course  of  the 
Messianic  idea  in  the  historical  life  of  the  Jewish 

1  Numb,  xxiii.  7-10.  » Ibid.  xxiv.  17,  23,  24. 


180 


people.  You  see  this  idea  taking  liere  a  uew  de- 
velopment; it  is  no  longer  a  patriarcli  of  Israel 
who  announces  the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  and  the 
establishment  of  his  reign  over  all  the  children 
of  Seth,  that  is  to  say  of  Adam,  but  a  stranger. 
And  he  marks  the  circumstances  of  his  coming 
with  most  strange  perspicacity,  since  he  even  desig- 
nates the  domination  of  the  Komans  over  the  East 
and  over  the  Jemsh  people  as  the  precursory  sign 
of  the  Messiah's  aj)pearance. 

David  and  Solomon  mark  the  highest  point  of 
the  Hebrew  monarchy,  and  with  them  commence 
the  national  and  religious  hymns  known  by  the 
name  of  psalms.  Sung  in  the  temple  of  Jerusa- 
lem on  the  great  feast  days,  they  publicly  ex- 
pressed the  inner  feeling,  the  hopes  and  desires  of 
the  whole  nation.  Now  it  is  easy  to  recognize 
here  the  Messianic  idea  disclosing  itself  on  all  oc- 
casions in  the  soul  of  poet  and  people.  On  read- 
ing them  you  will  remark  j^assages  such  as  this : 
"  All  the  ends  of  the  earth  shall  remember  and 
shall  be  converted  to  the  Lord  :  and  all  the  kin- 
dreds of  the  Gentiles  shall  adore  in  his  sight,  for 
the  kingdom  is  the  Lord's;  and  he  shall  have 
dominion  over  the  nations.  All  the  fat  ones 
of  the   earth   have  eaten,  and  have  adored :   all 


x81 


they  that  go  do\vn  to  tlie  eartli  sliall  fall  before 

liian." ' 

Later  also,  at  tlie  approach  of  the  decadency 
and   captivity  — seven   hundred   years,   however, 
before  Jesus  Christ— the  Messianic  idea  assumed 
in  Isaiah  a  clearness  and  an  abundance  of  expres- 
sion which  it  is  impossible  to  render  to  you,  since 
I  should  weary  you  by  the  number  and  length  of 
the  passages  I  should  have  to  cite.     It  is  he-  who 
sees  the  Messiah  springing  from  the  race  of  Jesse, 
the  father  of  David,  and  who  at  the  same  time 
describes,  as  if  from  Calvaiy  or  the  Vatican,  the 
glory  of  the   sufferings   and  triumphs  of  Jesus 
Christ.      "Aiise,  arise,  put   on   thy   strength,  O 
Sion;  put  on  the  garments  of  thy  glory,  O  Jeru- 
salem, the  city  of  the  holy  One :   for  henceforth 
the  uncircumcised  and  unclean  shall  no  more  pass 
through  thee."  '     "  How  beautiful  upon  the  moun- 
tains  are   the   feet   of  him  that   bringeth   good 
tidings,  and  that  preacheth  peace :    of  him  that 
showeth  forth  good,  that  preacheth  salvation,  that 
saith  to  Sion:   Thy  God  shall  reign!""     "The 
Lord  hath  prepared  his  holy  arm  in  the  sight  of 
all  the  Gentiles,  and  all  the  ends  of  the  earth 
shall  see  the  salvation  of  our  God." '     "  Behold 

»  Ps.  xxi.  28-30.  'I8.m.l.  'Ibid.  7.  "  Ibid.  10. 


18: 


my  servant  shall  understand,  he  shall  be  exalted 
and  extolled,  and  he  shall  be  exceeding  high. 
As  many  have  been  astonished  at  thee  so  shall 
his  visage  be  inglorious  among  men,  and  his  form 
among  the  sons  of  men.  He  shall  sj)rinkle  many 
nations.  Kings  shall  shut  their  mouth  at  him : 
for  they  to  whom  it  was  not  told  of  him  have 
seen,  and  they  that  heard  not  have  beheld."  * 
And  immediately  after,  Isaiah  begins  the  descri]3- 
tion  of  the  sufferings  and  ignominies  of  Calvary, 
which  he  completes  in  twelve  consecutive  verses. 
Tlien  he  continues  resuming  his  hymns  of  tri- 
umph :  "  He  that  hath  made  thee  shall  rule  over 
thee,  the  Lord  of  hosts  is  his  name ;  and  thy 
Redeemer,  the  holy  One  of  Israel,  shall  be  called 
the  God  of  all  the  earth." ' 

But  it  is  at  Babylon,  during  the  captivity,  six 
hundred  years  before  Jesus  Christ,  that  the  Mes- 
sianic idea  becomes  invested  with  a  form  which 
attains  to  mathematical  clearness  and  precision. 
Must  I  recall  to  you  the  prophecy  of  Daniel  ? 
Listen  then  to  it:  "Seventy  weeks  are  short- 
ened upon  thy  people,  and  upon  the  holy  city, 
that  transgression  may  be  finished,  and  sin  may 
have   an   end,  and    everlasting    justice   may   be 

1  Is.  lii.  13-15.  2  Ibid.  liv.  5. 


183 


brouglit,  and  vision  and  propliecy  may  be  fulfil- 
led, and  tlie  Saint  of  saints  be  anointed.     Know 
tliou  therefore    and   take   notice   that  from   the 
going  forth  of  the  word  to  build  up  Jerusalem 
again  unto  Christ  the  Prince,  there  shall  be  seven 
weeks  and  sixty-two  weeks :  and  the  street  shall 
be  built  again,  and  the  walls  in  the  straitness  of 
times.     And  after  sixty-two  weeks  Christ  shall 
be   slain  :    and  the  people  that   shall  deny  him 
shall  not  be  his.     And  a  people  with  their  leader 
that  shall  come   shall  destroy  the  city  and  the 
sanctuary :   and  the  end  thereof  shall  be  waste, 
and  after  the  end  of  the  war  the  appointed  deso- 
lation.    And  he  shall  confirm  the  covenant  with 
many,  in  one  week :  and  in  the  half  of  the  week 
the  victim  and  the  sacrifice  shall  fail :  and  there 
shall  be  in  the  temple  the  abomination  of  deso- 
lation:  and  the  desolation  shall  continue  even  to 
the  consummation,  and  to  the  end." ' 

I  do  not  stop,  gentlemen,  to  examine  the  strik- 
ing features  of  this  discourse,  which  resembles  less 
a  vision  of  the  future  than  a  narration  of  tbe  past. 
The  course  of  my  subject  bears  me  on  and  brings 
me  to  the  foot  of  the  second  temple,  to  hear,  five 
hundred    years   before   Jesus    Christ,   those   last 


184 


words  of  the  prophet  Aggeus :  "  Yet  one  little 
while,  and  I  will  move  the  heaven,  and  the  earth, 
and  the  sea,  and  the  dry  land,  and  I  will  move  all 
nations :  and  the  Desired  of  all  nations  shall  come : 
and  I  will  fill  this  house  with  glory,  saith  the  Lord 
of  hosts.  .  .  .  Great  shall  be  the  glory  of  this  last 
house  more  than  of  the  first,  and  in  this  23lace  will 
I  give  peace." ' 

What  continuity,  gentlemen,  through  so  many 
eventful  centuries  !  What  fidelity  to  one  and  the 
same  idea  from  so  many  men  separated  by  ages  ! 
But  the  Messianic  idea  was  not  even  confined 
to  the  special  tradition  of  the  Jewish  people ;  it 
passed  over  Jordan,  the  Euj^hrates,  the  Indus,  the 
Mediterranean,  all  the  oceans,  and,  borne  upon 
the  invisible  wings  of  Providence,  it  penetrated 
all  the  most  diverse  and  most  distant  nations,  to 
create  among  them  a  uniform  hope  and  a  univer- 
sal remembrance.  Confucius,  at  the  eastern  ex- 
tremity of  Asia,  spoke  of  a  saint  who,  he  said, 
was  the  true  saint^  and  who  would  apj^ear  in  the 
West.  Virgil,  translating  into  verse  the  oracles 
of  the  Cumsean  Sibyl,  announced  to  the  Augustan 
age  the  coming  of  a  mysterious  child,  a  son  of 
Jupiter,  destined  to  banish  from  the  world  the 

Aggeus  ii.  7-10. 


185 


vestiges  of  iniquity,  and  to  commence  an  order 
of  things  as  great  as  new.  Tacitus,  on  the  reign 
of  Vespasian,  thus  expresses  himself:  "It  was  a 
widely-spread  belief  that,  according  to  ancient 
sacerdotal  writings,  at  that  very  epoch,  the  East 
should  prevail,  and  that  men  come  from  Judsea 
should  seize  the  government  of  things."  The  ra- 
tionalists of  the  eighteenth  century,  constrained 
by  evidence,  have  often  avowed  that  unanimity  of 
the  Messianic  expectation.  Voltaire  said :  "  Fi'ora 
time  immemorial  it  was  a  maxim  among  the 
Indians  and  the  Chinese  that  the  sage  would 
come  from  the  West ;  Europe,  on  the  contrary, 
declared  that  the  sage  would  come  from  the 
East." '  Volney  said :  "  The  sacred  and  myth- 
ological traditions  of  former  times  had  spread 
throughout  Asia  the  belief  in  a  great  mediator 
who  was  to  come,  a  final  judge,  a  future  saviour, 
king,  God,  conqueror  and  legislator,  who  would 
bring  back  again  the  golden  age  upon  earth  and 
deliver  men  from  the  empire  of  evil." '  Boulan- 
ger,  under  a  still  more  general  form,  confessed 
that  all  nations  held  "  an  expectation  of  that  na- 
ture;" and  he  adds  this  astounding  phrase  :  that 


»  "  Additions  a  r  Histoire  Generale,"  page  15. 
'  "  Les  Ruines,"  page  228. 


186 


the  East  may  be  said  to  be  "  the  pole  of  the  hope 
of  all  nations"  '  It  is  the  very  saying  of  Jacob 
on  his  death-bed. 

It  is  then  certain,  gentlemen,  that  the  Messianic 
idea  was  the  life  of  the  Jewish  people  during  the 
course  of  the  two  thousand  years  which  preceded 
Jesus  Christ,  and  that  idea  was  held  among  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth  with  such  unanimity,  that 
it  is  not  even  possible  to  account  for  it  by  the 
communications  of  the  Hebrews  with  the  Gen- 
tiles, but  it  is  necessary  to  suppose  a  diffusion  of 
that  idea  even  anterior  to  Abraham.  And  that 
Messianic  idea,  so  extraordinary  in  its  universal- 
ity, its  progress,  its  perseverance,  and  its  preci- 
sion, is  it  at  length  fulfilled  ?  Yes,  it  is  fulfilled ; 
the  one  God,  creator  of  the  Hebraic  Bil)le,  has 
become  the  God  of  nearly  all  the  earth ;  and  the 
very  nations  that  have  not  yet  accepted  him  ren- 
der homage  to  him  by  a  certain  numl)er  of  adorers 
whom  Providence  elects  from  their  midst.  And 
who  has  accomplished  this  incredilde  revolution  ? 
One  single  man,  Christ.  And  whence  came  this 
man,  Christ  ?  He  was  a  Jew,  of  the  tribe  of 
Judah,  of  the  house  of  David,  And  how  has  he 
accomplished  this  prodigious  social  and  religious 

'  "Recherches  sur  V  Origine  du  Despotisme  oriental,"  section  x. 


187 


revolution?  By  suifering   and   dying,   as  David, 
Isaiah,  Daniel,  liad  foretold. 

And  now,  gentlemen,  what  think  you  of  it? 
Here  are  two  parallel  and  corresponding   facts, 
both   certain,  both    of  colossal   proportion,  one 
which  lasted  two  thousand   years  before  Jesus 
Christ,  the  other  which  has  lasted  eighteen  hun- 
dred  years    since    Jesus   Christ;  one  which    an- 
nounces a  great  revolution,  and  a  revolution  im- 
possible to  foresee,  the  other  which  is  its  accom- 
plishment, both  having  Jesus  Christ  for  principle, 
for  end,  and  for  bond  of  union.     Yet  once  more, 
what  think  you  of  it  ?     Are  you  bold  enough  to 
deny  it  ?     But  what  would  you  deny  ?     The  ex- 
istence of  the  Messianic  idea  ?     It  is  in  the  Jewish 
people,  still  living,  in  all  the  continuous  monu- 
ments of  its  history,  in  the  universal  traditions 
of  the  human  race,  in  the  most  positive  avowals 
of  the  most  profound  unbelief     Would  you  deny 
the  anteriority  of  the  prophetic   details?      The 
Jews,  who  crucified  Jesus  Christ,  and  who  have  a 
national  and  traditional  interest  in  depriving  him 
of  the  proofs  of  his  divinity,  declare  to  you  that 
their  Scriptures  were  formerly  what  they  are  now, 
and  for  additional  certainty,   two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  before  Jesus  Christ,  under   Ptolemy 


188 


Philadelplius,  king  of  Eg}^3t,  all  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, translated  into  Greek,  fell  into  tlie  posses- 
sion of  the  Greek  world,  the  Koman  world,  and 
the  whole  civilized  world.     Would  you  turn  to 
the  other  pole  of  the  question,  and  deny  the  ac- 
complishment of  the  Messianic  idea  ?     The  Catho- 
lic Church,  the  offspring  of  that  idea,  is  before 
your  eyes — she  has  baptized  you.      Would  you 
stand  upon  the  point  of  junction  of  those  two 
formidable  events  ?     Would  you  deny  that  Jesus 
Christ  has  verified  the  Messianic  idea  in  his  per- 
son, that  he  was  a  Jew,  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  of 
the  house  of  David,  and  the  founder  of  the  Catho- 
lic Church  upon  the  double  iniin  of  the  synagogue 
and  idolatry?     The  two  interested  parties — and 
they  are  irreconcilable  enemies — confess  all  this. 
The  Jew  affirms  it,  and  the  Christian  affinns  it. 
Would   you    say  that   this  juncture  of  colossal 
events  at  the  precise  point  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
result  of  chance  ?     Were  it  even  so,  chance  is  but 
a  brief  and  fortuitous  accident — its  definition  ex- 
cludes the  idea  of  continuity;  there  is  no  chance 
of  two  thousand  years'  duration  and  of  eighteen 
centuries  added  thereto.      In  fine,  would  you  say 
that  it  is  the  result  of  a  long  conspiracy,  by  which 
the  ambitious  and  theological  Jewish  people  sought 


189 

to  create  for  itself  a  great  existence  ?  What !  a 
conspiracy  lasting  two  thousand  years  founded 
upon  a  chief  whom  sixty  generations  had  to  wait 
for,  and  w^houi  it  w^as  necessary  to  create  after 
having  so  patiently  waited  for  him  !  Alas !  it  is 
no  easy  matter  to  conspire  in  favor  of  a  living 
man ;  what  must  it  be  to  conspire  in  favor  of  a 
man  who  does  not  exist,  and  who,  it  is  supposed, 
will  be  born  at  an  indefinite  epoch  !  And  re- 
mark that  when  that  man  came,  the  Jews  cruci- 
fied him — doubtless  because  his  crucifixion  formed 
part  of  the  conspiracy.  Observe  also  that  they 
denied  him  after  as  w^ell  as  before  the  crucifixion 
— doubtless  in  order  to  secure  the  final  success  of 
the  conspiracy  and  all  the  success  of  aml)ition  and 
theology  w^hich  they  expected  therefrom ! 

Gentlemen,  when  God  works  there  is  nothing 
to  be  done  against  him.  The  proportions  of  the 
work  of  Christ  in  the  times  which  preceded  him 
are  yet  more  striking  than  all  the  divine  propor- 
tions of  his  life  and  his  after-life.  For,  in  fine, 
when  a  man  lives,  he  is  a  powder,  he  has  an 
action ;  it  is  possible  to  conceive  that  certain  cir- 
cumstances may  have  favored  a  man  of  rare 
genius,  and  have  given  him  great  ascendancy 
over  his  contemporaries      Even  after  death  there 


190 


remain  friends,  disciples,  the  remembrance  of  an 
existence  wliicli  was  real,  and  consequently  a  sur- 
viving means  of  action.  But  what  are  we  able 
to  do  upon  that  which  precedes  us,  upon  the 
past  ?  Who  among  us,  however  eminent  he  may 
be,  is  able  to  make  an  ancestor  for  himself? 
Who  among  us,  desiring  to  found  a  doctrine,  is 
able  to  create  for  himself  an  avant-garde  of  gen- 
erations already  faithful  to  a  teaching  which  had 
not  yet  been  heard  ?  Who  among  us  will  pre- 
sent his  doctrinal  ancestry  to  the  world,  if  he  be 
not  truly  the  son  of  a  doctrine  interior  to  him- 
self ?  Ah  !  the  past  is  a  land  closed  against  us ; 
the  past  is  not  even  a  place  wherein  God  can  act, 
unless  he  act  there  beforehand  and  by  way  of 
preparation.  Had  Jesus  Christ  been  like  one  of 
us,  fallen  without  a  providential  j)re-existence 
between  the  past  and  the  future,  he  would  in 
vain  have  demanded  from  history  accomplished 
and  closed  a  pedestal  which  would  bear  him 
back  twenty  centuries  beyond  his  cradle.  In- 
stead of  this,  Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob,  David, 
Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  Daniel,  a  whole  people, 
the  human  race  itself,  came  to  meet  and  salute 
him  in  the  arms  of  the  aged  Simeon,  exclaiming 
in  the  name  of  all  the  past,  of  which  he  is  the 


191 


last  representative:  "Now  lettest  thou  tliy  ser- 
vant depart,  O  Lord,  according  to  thy  word,  in 
peace.  Because  mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salva- 
tion, which  thou  hast  prepared  before  the  face  of 
all  people :  a  light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles,  and 
the  glory  of  thy  people  Israel."  * 

We  have  reached  the  summit,  gentlemen ; 
Jesus  Christ  appears  before  us  as  the  moving 
principle  of  the  past  as  well  as  of  the  future,  the 
soul  of  the  times  which  j^receded  him  as  well 
as  of  the  times  which  follow  him.  He  appears 
before  us  in  his  ancestry,  upheld  by  the  Jewish 
people,  the  most  important  social  and  religious 
monument  of  ancient  times  ;  and  in  his  posterity, 
upheld  by  the  Catholic  Church,  the  greatest  social 
and  religious  work  of  modern  times.  He  ap- 
pears before  us,  holding  in  his  left  hand  the  Old 
Testament,  the  greatest  book  of  the  times  which 
preceded  him,  and  in  his  right  hand  the  Gospel, 
the  greatest  book  of  the  times  which  come  after 
him.  And  yet,  so  preceded,  and  so  followed,  he 
is  still  greater  in  himself  than  his  ancestors  and 
his  posterity,  than  the  patriarchs  and  the  proph- 
ets, than  the  apostles  and  the  martyrs.  Sup- 
ported by  all  that  is  most  illustrious  before  and 

>  St.  Luke  ii.  29-33. 


192 


after  iiim,  liis  personal  physiognomy  still  stands 
out  from  this  sublime  scene,  and,  by  outshining 
that  wliich  seemed  above  all,  reveals  to  us  the 
God  who  has  neither  model  nor  equal.  There- 
fore, in  presence  of  this  triple  sign  of  divinity — 
before,  during,  and  after — in  ancestry,  in  posterity, 
and  even  during  life,  let  us  stand  up,  gentlemen, 
let  us  all  stand  up  together,  whoever  we  may  be, 
believers  and  unbelievers.  Let  us  stand  up,  be- 
lievers, with  feelings  of  respect,  admiration,  faith, 
love,  for  a  God  who  has  revealed  himself  to  us 
with  so  much  evidence,  and  who  has  chosen  us 
among  men  to  be  the  depositaries  of  that  splen- 
did manifestation  of  his  truth !  And  you  who 
do  not  believe  stand  up  also,  but  with  fear  and 
trembling,  as  men  who  are  but  as  nothing  with 
their  power  and  their  reasoning,  before  facts 
which  fill  all  ages,  and  which  are  in  themselves 
so  full  of  the  power  and  majesty  of  God  ! 


THE  EFFORTS  OF  RATIONALISM  TO  DESTROY 
THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


My  Lord — Gentlemen, 

Jesus    Cheist  lived  as  God,  he  lias  outlived 
himself  as  God,  he  pre-existed  as  God ;  he  pre- 
existed  in  the  Jewish  people,  he  has  expressed 
his  life  in  the  Gospel,  he  has  outlived  that  life  in 
the  Church;    and  it  is  this  triple  circle  of  his 
manifestation  that  has  rendered  his  divinity  tri- 
umphant here  below.      As  soon  as  the  human 
race  possessed  fall  consciousness  of  this,  it  be- 
came, so  to  say,  overwhelmed  by  such  a  demon- 
stration, and  from  Theodosius  to  Louis  XIV. — 
for  the  space  of  thirteen  hundred  years — discus- 
sion  seemed  impossible  against  Christ — in  this 
sense  at  least,  that  all  yielded  to  him,  or  accepted 
him  as  their  foundation.     But,  this  time  having 
passed,  rationalism,  which  had  been  dethroned  by 
Jesus  Christ,  attempted  to  claim  again  the  empire 
it  had  lost ;  it  thought  that,  as  ages  had  covered 
all   that   formidable   edifice   with   their   billows, 
some  chances  were  possible  in  favor  of  doubt  and 


194 


negation,  and  that  tlie  eigliteentli  century  of  tLf 
Christian  era  conld  "be  called  upon  to  render  will- 
ing reprisals  and  new  judgments  against  a  doc- 
trine grown  old  by  time.  Rationalism  thus  found 
itself  again  in  presence  of  Jesus  Christ,  standing 
himself  between  the  Catholic  Church  and  the 
Jewish  people,  as  between  the  right  and  left 
wings  of  truth  ;  and  a  trij^le  war  was  planned,  in 
order  to  overthrow  the  work  whose  building  up 
was  in  past  times  accomplished  in  spite  of  the 
powerless  efforts  which  w^ere  now  to  be  renewed. 
The  Jewish  people  was  described  as  a  vile,  an  ig- 
noble, an  odious  race,  unworthy  of  any  credit  or 
respect;  the  Catholic  Church  as  an  instrument  of 
misery  for  the  people,  of  bondage  for  the  intelli- 
gence, of  subjection  for  nations  and  kings.  I 
have  defended  the  Church  before  you,  gentlemen, 
for  many  long  years ;  yesterday,  I  restored  the 
true  physiognomy  of  the  Je^vish  people;  I  shall 
not  return  to  either  of  these  during  these  discus- 
sions. Jesus  Christ  calls  me  to-day  into  the  very 
heart  of  the  combat  of  which  he  is  the  object  and 
the  chief.  The  Jewish  people  was  composed  of 
men,  and  so  is  also  the  Catholic  Church  ;  and, 
however  great  men  may  be,  they  are  not  alto- 
gether exempt,  even  when  bearing  in  their  hearts 


195 

the  Spirit  of  God,  from  some  failing  and  some 
infirmity;  it  is  not  so  witli  Christ.  Miraculous 
in  his  perfection,  he  does  not  suffer,  as  the  Gospel 
shows  him,  any  human  doubt ;  and  if  he  really 
stands  upon  that  faultless  pedestal,  it  is  vain  for 
rationalism  to  fulminate,  on  the  right  hand  and 
on  the  left,  its  powerless  thunder  against  him. 
Christ,  impassible  in  the  centre  of  Catholic  truth, 
shelters  all  under  his  impregnable  divinity.  It 
was,  then,  necessary  to  destroy  Jesus  Christ,  either 
by  annihilating  his  life,  by  perverting  it,  or  at  least 
by  explaining  it  away.  This  has  been  attempted, 
gentlemen  ;  and  the  exposition  of  this  triple  effort 
will  terminate  our  conferences  for  this  year.  Let 
us  commence  with  the  most  decisive  of  the  three 
—that  which  had  for  its  object  the  annihilation 
of  the  life  of  Christ. 

Is  Christ  a  chimera  or  a  reality  ?  Does  he  be- 
long to  fable  or  to  history  ?  This  is  the  question. 
It  may  astonish  you,  gentlemen,  and  yet  it  is  se- 
rious ;  for  clever  men  have  boldly  denied  the  ex- 
istence of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  others,  without  ven- 
turing to  this  extreme  audacity,  have  sought  at 
least  to  weaken  the  certainty  of  his  life,  and  art- 
fully to  lessen  its  historical  splendor.  It  1)ecomes 
necessary,  then,  to  place,  or  rather  to  maintain. 


196 


Jesus  Clirist  in  history ;  and  to  tliis  end  we  must 
first  of  all  learn  the  nature  and  the  laws  of  his- 
tory; for  as  long  as  we  are  unacquainted  with 
them,  it  will  be  impossible  for  us  to  decide 
whether  Jesus  Christ  is  or  is  not  a  historical  per- 
sonage. I  proceed,  then,  to  treat  of  history ;  we 
shall  afterwards  see  whether  Christ  is  present  in 
it  or  absent  from  it. 

Man  lives  in  time,  that  is  to  say,  in  a  singular 
element,  which  causes  him  at  the  same  time  to 
live  and  to  die ;  he  advances  between  a  past 
which  is  no  more  and  a  future  yet  to  come ;  and 
if  he  did  not  possess  the  faculty  of  concentrating 
in  himself  these  three  states  of  his  existence,  he 
would  be  but  incessantly  coming  into  the  world 
without  ever  attaining  to  the  possession  of  life. 
For  hardly  would  he  have  made  a  step  in  ad- 
vance before  forgetfulness  would  have  obliter- 
ated its  traces,  and  thus  he  would  be  constantly 
before  himself  like  a  vapor  rising  from  the  earth 
and  vanishing  away.  Against  this  terrible  power 
of  time,  God  has  given  him  memory,  by  which 
man  lives  in  the  past  as  well  as  in  the  present ; 
so  that  resuscitating  his  ancient  days  at  j)leasure, 
he  beholds  himself  in  the  plenitude  of  his  person- 
ality, like   an   edifice  whose    stones   have   been 


lo; 


placed  successively  but  which  the  eye  surveys 
and  perceives  entire.  Now  the  memory  that  suf- 
fices for  the  life  of  a  single  man  is  not  sufficient 
for  mankind ;  whilst  man  is  one,  with  a  memory 
subsisting  as  long  as  himself,  mankind  is  multi- 
ple, and  its  memory  expires  with  each  generation, 
or  at  most  but  little  of  it  is  transmitted  to  the 
future  generation.  The  father  tells  the  son  what 
he  has  seen,  the  son  relates  it  to  the  grandson, 
but  at  each  stage  remembrance  grows  more  ob- 
scure, and  little  by  little  the  light  of  that  tradi- 
tion brightens  only  the  distant  heights  of  the 
most  important  events.  It  ends,  hoAvever,  by 
becoming  defaced  ;  its  lines  grow  confused  to  the 
eyes  of  a  posterity  continually  retreating  before 
them ;  and  if  God  did  not  intervene  to  bring  help 
to  the  human  race  losing  all  traces  of  itself,  we 
should  be  living  in  an  eternal  state  of  infancy, 
between  a  past  about  which  we  are  untaught  and 
a  future  entirely  unknown  to  us.  Experience,  the 
source  of  all  progress,  would  constantly  be  want- 
ing. Neither  truth  nor  error,  neither  good  nor  evil 
would  be  known,  save  by  a  puerile  combat  recom- 
mencing always  at  the  same  point — a  spectacle  un- 
worthy of  man,  unworthy  of  God — where  truth 
and  good,  having  no   adequate   field    of   action, 


198 


would  never  be  able  to  disj^lay  their  cliaracters 
of  stability  and  immortality.  God,  wbo,  by  mem- 
ory, had  provided  for  the  progressive  identity  of 
man,  should  evidently  have  provided  also  for  the 
continuous  perpetuity  of  the  human  race  by  a 
memory  conformable  to  the  destinies  of  this  vast 
body,  that  is  to  say,  by  a  united,  a  universal,  a 
certain  memory,  capable  of  giving  to  mankind 
complete  consciousness  of  its  works  from  the  be- 
ginning to  the  end.  In  so  speaking,  gentlemen, 
I  have  defined  history. 

History  is  the  life  of  mankind  present  to  itself, 
as  our  life  is  present  to  us  ;  history  is  the  memory 
of  the  world.  But  what  difficulties  lie  in  the 
way  of  its  formation  !  God  lights  a  torch  in  our 
intelligence  which  enlightens  our  past,  because  he 
is  our  intelligence  itself,  one  and  iudivisiljle ;  but 
how  is  the  human  race,  multiple  and  divided,  to 
be  endowed  with  a  similar  light?  How  is  an 
immortal  memory  to  be  given  to  the  human  race 
which  dies  daily?  An  immutable  memory  to 
that  which  is  but  change  ?  A  certain  memory  to 
that  which  doubts  so  easily  about  all  that  it  does 
not  see?  God  provided  for  this  in  giving  us 
wiiting.  By  means  of  writing,  a  thing  once  said 
may  be  always  heard,  a  spectacle  once  witnessed 


11)9 


may  be   always  visible ;    writing   seizes  the  pas- 
sing wave  and  renders  it  eternal.    This  is  already 
immortality  and  immutability,  but  it  is  not  yet 
certainty.     For  the  false  can  be  wiitten  as  well 
as  the  true.      A  thing  may  indeed  be  written, 
but  who  will  guarantee  its  truth  to  us?     A  man 
two  thousand  years  ago  writes  a  book,  wherein 
he  relates  things  which  he   says  he  witnessed : 
who  will  prove  to  us  that  he  speaks  the  truth, 
and  that  a  fable  has  not  reached  us  under  the 
seemino;   g-arb    of  history?      Evidently,  writing 
alone  does  not  answer  to  this  question ;  history 
begins  with  it,  but  it  is  not  history  in  all  its  ele- 
ments.     History,  if  there   be  any,  should  com- 
mand our  minds  with  the  same  authority  as  the 
other  powers  which  have  received  a  mission  to 
govern  them.     As  there  is  a  moral  force  in  the 
world  which  does  not  permit  us  to  say  it  is  law- 
ful for  the  child  to  kill  his  father,  a  mathematical 
force  which  does  not  permit  us  to  l)uild  a  house 
upon  a  plan  without  equilibrium,  so  also  there 
should  exist  in  the  world  a  historical  force  which 
would  not  permit  us  to  say  to  history :  Thou  hast 
spoken  falsely.     If  this  force  exist  not,  there  is 

no  history. 

What  are,  then,  the  conditions  of  history ;  or 


200 


ratlier  wliat  are  the  conditions  of  a  liistorical 
writing  ?  For  writing  is  the  fundamental,  per- 
sisting, substantial  element  of  history.  Without 
writino^,  there  remains  to  us  nothinc:  l>ut  tradi- 
tion  more  or  less  confused ;  but  as  writing  may 
deceive,  it  is  needful  that  we  should  know  the 
conditions  which  elevate  writing  to  the  state  of 
historical  writing,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  state  of 
authentic,  certain,  infallible,  true  writing.  These 
conditions  are  three  in  number. 

In  the  first  place,  writing  must  be  public.  All 
that  is  secret  is  without  authority;  every  mj^ste- 
rious  document  is  valueless  because  it  has  not 
been  verified.  Nothing  of  this  is  powerful  but 
by  public  verification.  The  people  form  the  only 
notary  capable  of  certifying  their  own  history, 
because  they  form  the  assemblage  of  all  ages,  of 
all  ideas,  of  all  interests,  and  because  a  popular 
conspiracy  formed  to  lie  to  posterity  is  even  im- 
possible to  conceive.  A  man  fabricates  error ;  a 
people  has  too  many  diverse  ideas  and  passions 
to  be  able  to  combine  together  to  deceive  future 
generations.  Moreover  a  people  never  stands 
alone;  it  exists  among  contemporary  peoples 
wbose  history  is  blended  with  its  own,  and  even 
were   it   capable   of   unanimous   falsification,   it 


201 


would  inevitably  call  forth  tlie  protestation  of 
the  very  age  under  whose  eyes  it  would  have  in- 
augurated its  conspiracy. 

The  second  condition  of  writing,  in  order  for 
it  to  attain  to  the  state  of  history,  is  that  it  must 
bear  upon  public  events.  Every  fact  that  is  not 
public  does  not  belong  to  the  domain  of  history, 
for  the  reason  I  have  just  given;  for  who  has 
witnessed  a  fact  that  is  not  public?  a  single 
man,  three  men  if  you  mil,  but  history  cannot 
be  based  upon  the  testimony  either  of  a  single 
man,  or  of  three  men ;  this  is  not  history,  it  is 
only  memory.  Memory  bears  upon  private  facts, 
whilst  history  bears  upon  public  events.  For 
example,  that  Louis  XIV.  conquered  Flanders, 
Alsace,  Lorraine,  that  he  joined  these  provinces 
to  the  kingdom  of  France,  first  by  force  of  arms, 
then  by  treaties,  is  history ;  these  are  events 
which  interested  France  and  all  the  nations  of 
Europe,  and  which  had  a  hundred  millions  of 
men  for  spectators.  But  that  Louis  XIV.  in  his 
chamber  at  Versailles  said  something  in  presence 
of  M.  le  Due  de  Saint  Simon,  which  is  related 
in  the  works  of  that  talented  person,  is  nothing 
more  than  memory.  Doubtless  this  secondary 
element  enters  largely  into  the  formation  of  the 


202 


annals  of  tlie  human  race,  because  we  should  not 
be  satisfied  with  recitals  wherein  only  the  main 
features  of  historical  architecture  would  be  visi- 
ble ;  we  are  attracted  more  even  by  the  private 
details  than  by  the  general  movements  of  the 
world :  the}^  approach  nearer  to  our  personal  ex- 
istence, and  cause  the  most  eminent  personages 
of  past  times  to  descend  even  to  us.  Moreover, 
although  destitute  of  the  solemn  certainty  of 
history,  they  are  not  always  without  a  grave 
sanction,  although  of  an  inferior  order ;  private 
acts  become  interwq,ven  with  public  acts  ;  numer- 
ous concurrino;  witnesses  establishes  each  other  s 
statements;  and  the  whole  advances  in  a  manner 
not  too  unequal.  Nevertheless,  as  soon  as  abso- 
lute historical  certainty  is  aspired  to,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  separate  the  two  elements,  and  to  give  to 
the  former,  by  that  separation,  all  its  force  and 
all  its  lustre. 

The  third  condition  necessary  to  raise  writing 
to  the  state  of  history,  is  that  the  events  should 
blend  together  and  form  a  public  and  general 
web.  Nothing  is  isolated  in  the  events  of  this 
world ;  they  are  connected  with  each  other  by  a 
chain  of  succession  similar  to  that  which  unites 
ideas  in  the  logical  tissue  of  a  discourse.     History 


20^ 


should  reproduce  tliat  continuous  generation  in 
such  a  manner  that  all  the  facts  it  relates  should 
enter  naturally  into  the  course  of  tilings  of  which 
the  progressive  whole  constitutes  the  life  of  the 
human  race.  A  solitary  fact  is  not  a  historical 
fact;  it  has  no  real  place,  it  floats  in  air.  Still 
much  less  should  we  give  this  name  to  a  fact 
which  cannot  take  its  place  in  the  general  web  of 
history  without  deranging  its  whole  economy ; 
this  is  the  infallible  sign  of  imposture.  The  force 
of  history,  like  the  force  of  every  other  real  order 
is  in  its  completeness  and  unity.  When  a  man 
stands  alone,  he  is  nothing ;  when  a  fact  stands 
alone,  it  is  nothing.  But  let  a  man  enter  into 
association  with  others,  they  form  a  family,  a 
people,  the  whole  human  race.  And,  in  like 
manner,  when  a  fact  enters  into  historical  associa- 
tion with  others,  and  not  with  others  only,  but 
with  all  the  rest,  let  it  become  necessary  to  the 
general  web  of  history,  so  that  history  cannot  l)e 
constructed  without  that  fact,  then  it  possesses 
not  only  the  force  of  a  historical  fact,  but  the 
force  of  all  history;  we  must  accept  it  or  deny 
the  entire  life  of  the  human  race. 

The  three  elements  of  history  are,  then,  public 
writing,  public  events,  public  web  of  events ;  and 


204 


when  tliese  tliree  elements  are  united,  I  affirm 
that  history  exists,  and  that  it  cannot  be  resisted 
without  resisting  the  very  force  of  common  sense. 
In  effect,  gentlemen,  for  history  to  be  false  in  this 
case  see  what  must  be  possible :  that  a  man,  no 
matter  who,  relating  in  public  events  of  a  public 
nature,  those  events  supposed  to  be  false  must  be 
received  as  true,  and,  notwithstanding  their  falsity, 
be  interwoven  in  the  general  web  of  history.  Now 
this  is  altogether  impossible,  and  nothing  is  more 
easy  than  to  prove  it  to  you.  Allow  me  only  one 
supposition.  I  suppose  that  to-morro^v  morning 
it  may  please  me  to  j)ublish  a  work  the  substance 
of  which  I  thus  sum  up.  On  the  1st  of  January, 
1847,  France  declared  war  against  the  three  great 
continental  powers  of  Europe.  The  object  of  this 
war  was  to  re-establish  the  rights  of  nations  and 
faith  in  treaties  compromised  by  acts  of  violence. 
The  hostile  armies  met  on  the  plains  of  Mayence. 
France  had  six  hundred  thousand  men  under 
arms,  the  enemy  had  a  million.  The  battle  lasted 
ten  consecutive  days;  on  the  morning  of  the 
tenth  day  the  French  were  victorious.  The  j)leni- 
potentiaries  of  Europe  assembled  at  Mayence, 
and  signed  a  treaty  which  put  an  end  to  the  war 
by  a  new\partition  of  the  European  continent. 


205 


I  ask  you,  gentlemen,  do  you  believe  that  tMs 
political  romance  would  have  any  chance  of  im- 
posing upon  posterity  ?  Is  it  not  manifest  that 
France  would  treat  it  with  the  deepest  scoi'n  1  If 
France  accepted  it,  is  it  not  manifest  that  the 
whole  of  Europe  would  hold  it  up  to  public  de- 
rision? And  if,  by  an  act  of  universal  folly, 
France  and  Europe  consented  to  invest  it  with 
an  absurd  authority,  is  it  not  manifest  that  it 
would  be  found  impossible  to  introduce  it  into 
the  web  of  history,  since  the  state  of  all  contem- 
porary affairs,  and,  consequently,  of  all  future 
aifairs,  would  be  in  contradiction  with  that  pre- 
tended war  and  that  fictitious  treaty?  To  sus- 
tain falsehood,  perpetual  falsehood  is  necessary ; 
and  the  conspiracy  of  a  single  moment  against 
truth  would  require  a  conspiracy  continued  to 
the  end  of  the  world.  The  impossibility  of  such 
a  concurrence  and  of  such  perseverance  in  a  uni- 
versal imposture  is  not  only  a  moral  impossibility, 
but  a  metaphysical  and  an  absolute  impossibility. 

Now,  gentlemen,  to  whatever  epoch  in  the  his- 
tory of  mankind  we  may  turn,  that  impossibility 
would  be  the  same.  In  all  times  and  places,  pub- 
lic writing  describing  public  events  which  natur- 
ally range  themselves  in  the  general  course  of 


206 


history  would  be  aiitlientic  and  true,  because  in 
all  times  and  places  it  would  have  been  impossible 
under  such  circumstances  to  deceive  the  human 
race  in  regard  to'  its  own  life,  or  to  j^ersuade  it  to 
deceive  itself  without  object  and  against  all  rea- 
son. And  —  mark  it  well,  gentlemen — history 
once  existing,  time  has  not  the  privilege  of  lessen- 
ing its  force ;  so  far  from  lessening,  it  confirms  it. 
I  say,  first,  that  it  does  not  lessen  its  force ;  and  as 
proof  I  propose  this  to  you :  Think  of  Caesar,  then 
think  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  ask  yourselves  whether 
the  historical  certainty  of  Louis  XIV.  and  the 
historical  certainty  of  Csesar  diifer  in  the  slightest 
degree  in  your  mind.  Evidently,  they  do  not 
differ;  and  yet  seventeen  centuries  separate  Louis 
XIV.  from  Caesar.  But  those  seventeen  centuries 
vanish  from  your  thought  by  the  electrical  glance 
which  suddenly  carries  it  from  the  one  to  the 
other,  and  causes  it  to  perceive  not  only  that 
the  historical  basis  of  Caesar  is  the  same  as  the 
historical  basis  of  Louis  XIV.,  but  also  that 
in  doubting  in  regard  to  the  first  it  would  l)e 
needful  to  doubt  the  second,  since  without  Cnesar 
history  would  lose  all  its  connection,  and  there- 
with the  principal  cause  of  its  reality.  I  say 
still  more,  I  say  that  time  confirms,  instead   of 


207 


lessening  the  certainty  of  history.  And  why  so  ? 
Because  time  at  every  step  unfolds  the  historical 
canvas,  and  because  each  point  of  history  entering 
into  participation  with  the  united  force  of  the 
whole,  the  more  that  force  increases  hy  the  reper- 
cussion of  events  upon  each  other,  the  more  each 
particular  point  becomes  settled,  sustained  and 
extended.  Thus,  Moses  has  been  consolidated  by 
Jesus  Christ ;  for  although  Moses  wrote  publicly 
on  public  events,  the  web  of  history  was  short  in 
his  time,  and  wanted  breadth ;  and  when  Jesus 
Christ  took  his  place  there,  his  presence  lighted 
up  the  Mosaic  past,  as  the  Christian  future  had  in 
its  turn  to  reflect  back  again  even  to  Jesus  Christ. 
Whence  it  follows  that  we  do  not  advance  a 
step  in  the  present  time  without  again  bearing 
to  Moses  the  glory  of  a  new  confirmation,  because 
in  all  that  we  do  he  supports  us,  and  we  in  our 
turn  explain  all  that  he  has  done.  The  thread 
of  history  unceasingly  goes  and  returns  from  the 
past  to  the  future,  from  the  future  to  the  past ; 
and  that  which  we  see  mth  our  eyes  will  be 
more  clear  to  our  posterity  than  it  is  to  us,  be- 
cause upon  the  canvas  which  represents  us  they 
will  complete  designs  which  have  not  yet  left  the 
hands  of  the  workmen.      Like  a  building  that 


208 


covers  its  foundations,  so  is  history ;  as  land  tliat 
grows  firm  by  being  trodden  upon,  so  also  is  his- 
tory under  the  footsteps  of  generations.  In  a 
word,  time,  which  seemed  the  greatest  enemy  of 
history,  as  soon  as  history  is  founded,  protects 
and  consolidates  it. 

But  does  history  exist?  Is  all  that  we  have 
just  said  anything  but  a  magnificent  s^^eculation  ? 
Does  the  human  race  know  its  own  life  ?  Is  there 
in  the  world  a  history  of  the  world  ?  This,  gen- 
tlemen, is  to  ask  if  there  exist  public  writings 
containing  a  long  web  of  public  events;  now 
these  writings  and  this  web  of  events  are  before 
your  eyes.  Mankind  learns  its  primitive  life  by 
certain  fundamental  traditions  collected  in  due 
time  and  confirmed  by  their  universality;  it 
learns  its  subsequent  life  from  Moses  by  an 
unbroken  history  which  advanced  in  constant 
development.  From  Moses  to  Herodotus  is  the 
dawn  of  history;  from  Herodotus  to  Tacitus  its 
morning ;  Tacitus  is  its  noon,  and  that  noonday 
still  lasts.  It  is  even  become  more  striking  for 
the  last  three  centuries,  through  a  celebrated  in- 
vention which  has  greatly  increased  the  publicity 
and  immortality  of  writing.  As  God  had  given 
writing  to  our  fathers  when  tradition  was  in  dan- 


209 


ger  of  growing  obscure,  lie  gave  printing  to  tliem 
when  writing  itself  was  also  menaced  with  be- 
coming forgotten  and  confused  from  the  supera- 
bundance of  documents.  Printing  saved  Mstory 
fifteen  hundred  years  after  Jesus  Christ,  as  writing 
saved  tradition  fifteen  hundred  years  before  him. 
Such  being  the  case,  gentlemen,  and  history 
having  existed  for  thirty  centuries,  it  remains  to 
be  seen  whether  Jesus  Christ  does  or  does  not 
form  a  part  of  history.  I  affirm  that  he  is  in  his- 
tory, and  that  none  other  in  the  world  holds  in  it 
a  place  more  important  or  more  certain  than  his 
own. 

What  have  I  to  do,  gentlemen,  in  order  to  prove 
this?  Evidently  three  things:  I  have  to  shoAV 
that  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  is  contained  in  a  pub- 
lic writing,  that  it  is  a  tissue  of  public  events, 
and  that  it  enters  naturally  into  the  public  web 
of  history. 

Now  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  is  contained  in  the 
Gospels,  and  the  Gospels  form  a  public  writing; 
this  is  my  first  proposition.  But  you  at  once  ask 
me  where  I  find  the  proof  that  the  Gospels  form  a 
public  writing.  Is  it  not,  say  you,  in  the  Gospels 
themselves  ?  And  do  you  not  thus  prove  the 
question  by  another  question  ?     Gentlemen,  if  the 


210 


Gospels  commenced  or  formed  the  whole  of  his- 
tory it  would,  perhaps,  be  difficult  to  reply  to 
you ;  but  you  have  not,  I  think,  so  soon  forgotten 
that  history  existed  before  Jesus  Christ ;  and  God, 
who  willed  to  give  us  the  certainty  of  the  exist- 
ence and  works  of  his  Son,  had  apparently  pre- 
pared the  ground  upon  which  we  were  one  day  to 
meet  him.  That  ground  is  history;  and  at  the 
time  in  which  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  is  placed, 
that  is  to  say  about  the  time  of  Augustus,  history 
held  a  position  in  the  world  which  did  not  de- 
pend upon  us.  It  is  not  Catholics  who  make  his- 
tory ;  it  is  made  without  us  and  against  us.  It 
was  in  the  hands  of  our  enemies,  and  if  we  then 
began  the  history  of  the  Church,  that  of  the  world 
continued  its  course  upon  a  plan  which  was  not 
ours,  and  in  which  no  power  was  reserved  to  us. 
Now  this  is  the  history  that  I  invoke  to  establish 
the  publicity  of  the  Gospels;  and  first  of  all  I 
rest  upon  an  observation  which  I  consider  fun- 
damental ;  the  Gospels,  I  say,  were  public  writ- 
ings, because  they  belonged  to  a  public  doctrinal 
society. 

That  the  first  Christians  formed  a  doctrinal 
society  is  clear  of  itself;  that  that  society  was 
public  is  also  beyond  doubt ;    nevertheless  it  is 


211 


necessary  to  establish  tliis  in  tlie  most  positive 
manner,  for  it  is  tlie  groundwork  of  the  whole 
matter.  It  can  indeed  be  conceived  that  a  few 
men,  secretly  united,  and  preaching  a  secret  doc- 
trine, may  have  been  able  secretly  to  prepare  a 
mysterious  book,  which  had  not  been  subject  to 
any  investigation,  and  which  was  spread  from 
hand  to  hand,  gaining  authority  with  time.  But 
if  the  Christian  community  was  from  the  very 
first  public ;  if,  from  the  morrow  of  the  death  of 
Christ,  his  Apostles  appeared  in  the  public  places 
of  Judaea,  and  soon  after  in  the  public  places  of 
the  Roman  empire,  provoking,  not  an  occult  war, 
but  a  visible  and  notorious  struggle ;  if  they  said 
boldly  to  the  Jews :  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a  man 
approved  of  God  among  you,  by  miracles  and 
wonders  and  signs,  which  God  did  by  him  in  the 
midst  of  you,  as  you  also  know  ;  this  same  being 
delivered  up,  by  the  determinate  counsel  and 
foreknowledge  of  God,  you,  by  the  hands  of 
vdcked  men,  have  crucified  and  slain.  Whom 
God  hath  raised  up  ; "  '  if,  being  dragged  before 
all  the  tribunals  of  the  empire,  when  asked  who 
they  were,  they  answered :  We  are  Christians, 
that  is  to    say,  the  children  of  Christ,  who  has 

>  Acts  ii.  23-34. 


212 


been  put  to  deatli,  but  wLoni  tlie  arm  of  God — 
more  powerful  than  all  the  conspiracies  of  men — 
has  raised  from  his  tomb,  and  elevated  to  be  for 
ever  the  head  and  chief  of  all  nations;  if  they 
said  this,  if  it  be  certain  that  they  said  this — cer- 
tain, not  only  from  our  writings,  but  from  writ- 
ings derived  from  strangers,  from  our  enemies,  by 
a  multitude  of  documents — I  shall  have  the  right 
to  conclude  that  the  Christian  society,  at  its  be- 
ginning, was  a  public  society,  and  that,  differing 
from  so  many  things  formed  in  secret — because 
they  have  no  faith  in  their  strength  and  legitimacy 
— the  Catholic  Church  began  in  publicity,  as  she 
has  continued  in  publicity. 

Let  us  come  to  the  proof,  and  hear  Tacitus,  the 
most  celebrated  of  historians — Tacitus,  charged 
by  God  to  grave  in  history  the  certificate  of  the 
birth  and  death  of  his  only  Son  Jesus  Christ. 
Twenty-seven  years  after  that  great  drama  of  Cal- 
vary, Nero  was  pleased  to  burn  Rome ;  and  to 
hide  the  horror  of  that  abominable  action,  he 
caused  to  be  seized,  says  Tacitus,  an  "  immense 
multitude  of  men"  —  ingens  multitudo.  Who 
were  those  men  ?  Tacitus  defines  them  :  they 
were  men  "  whom  the  common  people  called 
Christians  "  —  quos  vulgus   christianos  apella- 


213 


BAT.  Remark  this  word  vulgus  ;  twenty-seven 
years  after  tlic  death  of  Christ  the  name  of  his 
disciples  was  common  in  Rome,  the  capital  of  the 
world.  But  what  were  Christians  ?  Tacitus 
tells  us :  "  the  author  of  this  name  was  Christ " — 
AUCTOR  NOMiNis  HUJus  Cheistus.  You  hear,  gen- 
tlemen, you  hear ;  and  the  date  of  this  text,  which 
has  never  been  contested  by  any  one,  is  authen- 
tic ;  it  is  marked  by  the  burning  of  Rome,  in 
the  year  64  of  the  Christian  era,  that  is  to  say, 
twenty-seven  years  after  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ. 
But  is  this  all  ?  No ;  you  will  hear  more,  you 
will  hear  the  Apostles'  Creed,  written  by  the  pen 
and  with  the  ink  of  Tacitus.  The  historian  had 
to  say  who  Christ  was ;  he  continues,  then : 
"  They  derived  their  name  and  origin-  from  Christ, 
who,  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  had  suffered  death 
by  the  sentence  of  the  procurator  Pontius  Pilate  " 

AUCTOE    NOMINIS    HUJUS    ChEISTUS,    QUI,  TlBEEIO 

IMPEEITANTE,  PEE    PEOCUEATOEEM    PoNTIUM    PlLA- 

TUM  suppLicio  AFFECTUS  EEAT.  Ouce  more,  is  it 
Tacitus  who  speaks,  or  is  it  the  Apostles'  Creed  ? 
The  Apostles'  Creed  says:  Qui  passus  est  sub 
PoNTio  PiLATO ;  Tacitus  says :  Qui  pee  peocuea- 

TOREM      PONTIUM      PiLATUM      SUPPLICIO      AFFECTUS 

ERAT.     It  is  indeed  Tacitus — a  stranger,  a  pagan, 


214 


a  man  who,  in  writing  these  things  in  indestruct- 
ible memorials,  did  not  even  know  what  he  said. 
And  what  said  he  of  the  Christians,  of  that 
immense  multitude  whom  the  common  people 
called  Christians  ?  He  said  this  of  them,  in  the 
same  text :  "  For  a  while  this  dire  superstition  was 
checked;  but  it  again  burst  forth,  and  not  only- 
spread  itself  over  Judaea,  the  first  seat  of  this 
evil,  but  even  in  Rome  " — kepeessaque  in  pr^- 

SENS  EXITIALIS  SUPERSTITIO  RIJRSUS  ERUMPEBAT, 
NON    MODO     PER    JuDiEAM     ORIOIWEM    HUJUS     MALI, 

SED  PER  Uebem  etiam.  What  a  text,  gentle- 
men !  what  precision  !  what  matter  in  two  lines  ! 
Twenty-seven  years,  then,  after  the  death  of 
Christ,  the  Christians  formed  an  immense  multi- 
tude in  Kome,  they  were  commonly  known  by 
their  true  name ;  even  before  this  epoch  they  had 
already  been  repressed  by  j^ublic  authority,  but 
that  repression  did  not  hinder  them  from  spread- 
ing with  such  power,  that  Tacitus  calls  it  an 
irruption;  they  appeared  before  the  tribunals, 
and  there  bore  testimony  to  their  faith ;  for 
Tacitus  adds  that  they  were  seized  "  upon  their 
own  avowal" — primo  correpti  qui  fatebantur. 
They  were  "  odious  to  all " — invisos  :  and  their 
morals    differed   so   much    from   general   morals 


215 

that,  according  to  the  remark  of  tlie  historiau, 
"  they  were  less  convicted  of  the  crime  of  revolt 
than  of  hatred  of  the  human  kind  "— haud  per- 

INDE  IN  CRIMINE  INCENDII,  QUAM  ODIO  HUMANI  GEN- 
ERIS coNViCTi  SUNT.'  And  Tacitus  knew  all  this : 
he  knew  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ;  he  knew 
Pontius  Pilate  ;  the  drama  of  Calvary  was  pres- 
ent to  him. 

Would  you  have  another  proof  of  the  public 
life  of  Christians  from  the  very  origin  of  Chris- 
tianity ?    Cod  and  history  will  not   refuse  it  to 
you.     In  the  year  98  of  the  Christian  era— sixty- 
one  years  after  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ— Trajan 
mounts  the  throne ;  and  history  brings  us  a  letter 
of  one  of  his  proconsuls  on  the  subject  of  the 
Christians,  the  proconsul  of  Bithynia  and  Pontus, 
Pliny  the  Younger,  a  celebrated  man.     For,  ob- 
serve, gentlemen,  when  God  wills  to  write  his- 
tory, he  is  not  unskilful  in  choosing  his  historians. 
We  have  just  heard  Tacitus ;    let  us  now  hear 
Pliny  the  Younger,  in  an  official  letter  to  Trajan. 
He  writes  to  the  emperor  to  consult  him  about  the 
measures  to  be  taken  against  Christians  ;  for,  says 
he,  "I  have  never  had  to  deal  with  cases  of  this 
kind,  and  I  know  not  what  it  is  the  customjto 

2  "Annals,"  book  15. 


216 


pursue  and  punisli  in  tliem,  or  in  what  degree.  I 
have  no  little  difficulty  in  ascertaining  whether  it 
is  needful  to  take  account  of  difference  of  age  oi 
to  be  indifferent  to  it ;  whether  pardon  is  to  be 
granted  on  repentance,  or  whether  it  is  useless  to 
cease  to  be  a  Christian  after  having  once  pro- 
fessed Christianity ;  whether  it  is  the  name  which 
is  to  be  pursued,  even  when  exemj)t  from  crime, 
or  the  crime  attached  to  the  name."  What  ques- 
tions, gentlemen,  for  an  able  and  good  man !  A 
name  criminal !  Crimes  attached  to  a  name ! 
But  what  could  he  do  ?  Pliny  found  in  his  way 
customs  already  inveterate  against  a  society  of 
men  in  open  struggle  with  the  Roman  empire ; 
and  we  perceive,  even  in  the  absurd  things  which 
he  says,  a  desire  to  be  as  lenient  as  j)ossible  with- 
out offending  the  emperor.  His  letter  ends  with 
the  remark,  "  that  a  great  number  of  persons  of 
every  age,  rank,  and  sex  were  compromised,  and 
that  others  would  be ;  that  not  only  the  cities, 
but  the  towns  and  villages,  were  overrun  with 
that  contagious  superstition ;  that,  in  fine,  the 
deserted  temples,  and  the  sacred  ceremonies 
which  had  for  a  long  time  been  interrupted,  began 
to  revive,  in  consequence  of  the  measures  taken 
against  the  Christians." 


217 


This  picture,  gentlemen,  joined  to  that  of  Taci- 
tus, leaves  no  doubt  upon  tlie  capital  point  before 
us,  namely,  tliat  from  tlie  origin  of  Christianity, 
the  Christians  lived  in  a  publicly-constituted  soci- 
ety. And,  moreover,  the  very  result  obtained  by- 
them  in  the  short  space  of  three  centuries  is  a  su- 
perabundant proof  of  it.  At  the  end  of  three  cen- 
turies, the  Christians  were  masters  of  the  Roman 
empire ;  they  bore  to  the  throne  the  first  Caesar 
who  embraced  their  faith,  and,  not  content  with 
this  prodigy  of  their  power,  they  said  to  Constan- 
tine:  Withdraw  to  the  Bosphorus,  for  here,  in 
Kome,  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  the  fisherman  of  Gal- 
lilee,  must  be  placed.  And  Constantine,  from  in- 
stinctive obedience  to  that  unexpressed  command 
of  Providence,  withdrew,  and  so  bore,  even  to  the 
borders  of  the  Euxine,  a  proof,  still  subsisting,  of 
the  social  mission  of  Jesus  Christ.  Now,  gentle- 
men, no  secret  society  has  ever  been  capable  of 
such  success.  All  that  begins  in  secret  is  accom- 
plished in  secret.  When  men  speak  to  you  of 
a  secret  society,  it  is  as  if  they  told  you  that 
nothing  had  formed  an  association.  Doubtless 
these  secret  conspiracies  may  work  secretly,  shake 
the  foundations  of  states,  prepare  the  day  of  ruins ; 
but  they  never  attain  to  a  regulated  and  public 
10 


218 


life.  All  tliat  begins  in  darkness  is  struck  with 
incapacity  to  live  in  open  air  and  in  open  day. 
Therefore  the  attainment  of  empire  by  the  Chris- 
tian society,  under  Constantine,  is  of  itself  a  suf- 
ficient proof  that  the  Christian  work  was  a  con- 
stantly public  work. 

But  if  the  first  Christians  formed  a  public 
society,  and  at  the  same  time  a  doctrinal  society, 
it  necessarily  follows  that  their  writings  were 
public.  Endeavor  to  conceive  a  public  doctrinal 
society  which  hides  its  writings ;  you  will  never 
succeed.  For  how  would  it  be  public,  if  it  did  not 
boldly  proclaim  what  it  believed,  and  how  would 
it  proclaim  what  it  believed,  if  it  secreted  its  writ- 
ings, and  those  even  which  formed  the  foundation 
of  its  faith  ?  Although  the  Gospels  may  not  have 
been  written  on  the  very  instant  after  the  death 
and  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  they  were  pub- 
lished over  the  whole  world  by  the  preaching  of 
the  Apostles,  and  when  they  appeared  succes- 
sively, the  young  and  living  tradition  became 
blended  with  them  in  one  and  the  same  authentic- 
ity. A  contest  of  nearly  three  hundred  years 
began  upon  the  very  text  of  the  Gosj^els  between 
Catholics  on  one  hand,  and  heretics  and  philoso- 
phers  on  the  other.     This  contest  has  left  very 


219 


numerous  monuments.  We  see,  then,  Celsus  and 
Porpliyry  following  step  by  step  upon  the  Gos- 
pels, the  life  of  the  Saviour.  They  do  not  dispute 
their  publicity  or  their  authenticity.  Heretics  do 
something  more.  Not  only  do  they  discuss  upon 
the  text  consecrated  by  the  adhesion  of  the  Church, 
but  they  fabricate  for  themselves  apocryphal  Gos- 
pels to  oppose  them  to  the  approved  Gospels,  so 
true  is  it  that  the  whole  discussion  bore  upon  those 
fundamental  texts.  They  were  sim23le  enough  to 
make  for  themselves  an  arm  against  us  of  a[)ocry- 
phal  Gospels,  that  is  to  say,  to  invoke  against 
Jesus  Christ  books  wherein  the  principal  myste 
ries  of  his  life  and  death  were  recognized,  and 
where  the  very  alteration  of  certain  passages 
served  but  to  prove  so  much  the  more  the  truth 
of  the  whole.  It  is  very  natural  that  great  pub- 
licity should  call  forth  counterfeits ;  this  is  even 
the  greatest  sign  of  success.  Every  idea,  every 
style,  every  fashion  that  succeeds,  raises  up  a  cloud 
of  imitators  or  speculators.  But  what  is  that  to 
the  man  or  to  the  thing  which  is  the  o])ject  of 
such  effort  ?  At  least,  it  is  not  publicity  which 
suffers  from  it ;  now,  the  publicity  of  the  life  of 
Jesus  Christ  by  the  Gospels  and  the  primitive 
Christian  books  is  precisely  the  point  that  I  de 


220 


sired  to  establish,  and  I  do  not  think  yon  will 
require  more  from  me. 

The  life  of  Jesus  Christ  was,  from  the  first,  sur- 
rounded by  immense  publicity.  His  disciples, 
from  the  first,  formed  a  public  society ;  their  pro- 
fession of  faith,  their  writings  filled  all  the  tribu- 
nals and  all  the  schools  of  the  earth  ;  and  finally, 
in  three  centuries,  the  emperor  was  publicly  Chris- 
tian, and  the  vicar  of  Jesus  Christ  was  publicly 
seated  in  Rome.  All  this  is  as  certain  in  profane 
history  as  in  Christian  history.  This  fii'st  point  is 
gained. 

As  to  the  events  which  compose  the  very  life 
of  Jesus  Christ,  their  nature  is  also  that  of  mani- 
fest and  striking  publicity.  What  was  in  ques- 
tion ?  Was  it  a  philosopher  teaching  certain  dis- 
ciples under  a  porch  or  in  a  garden  ?  Was  it  but 
a  Socrates,  however  celebrated  he  may  be?  No  ; 
it  was  a  question  of  a  man,  the  founder  of  a  new 
religion,  a  thing  that  touched  all — traditions,  laws, 
customs,  sentiments,  even  the  most  sacred  inter- 
ests ;  it  was  of  a  man  the  founder  of  an  exclusive 
religion,  and  who  designed  nothing  less  than  the 
overthrow  of  all  existino-  relio-ious  and  sacerdotal 
bodies;  it  was  of  a  man  working,  it  was  said, 
in  public  unheard-of  miracles,  and   accompanied 


221 


everywhere  by  an  innumerable  multitude,  at- 
tracted by  his  works  and  his  doctrine ;  it  was  of 
a  man  called  before  the  supreme  tril^unal  of  his 
country,  condemned,  put  to  death,  and  afterwards, 
it  was  said,  raised  again  from  the  dead,  and  who 
sent  his  disciples  to  the  moral  conquest  of  the 
world ;  it  was  of  a  man  having  succeeded  in  rais- 
ing up  an  unshaken  faith  in  the  hearts  of  a  multi- 
tude of  men  of  all  nations,  and  become,  by  his 
name  alone,  the  rallying-point  of  a  new  society. 
If  ever  there  were  public  events,  assuredly  they 
were  these. 

And  these  events,  which  contradicted  all  the 
past  life  of  the  human  race — which  must,  conse- 
quently, if  they  were  false,  have  been  rejected 
from  the  general  web  of  history  by  an  invincible 
impossibility  of  ever  forming  a  part  therein — have 
they  or  have  they  not  taken  their  place  in  that 
rigorous  chain  of  the  human  life  during  three 
thousand  years  ?  They  have  done  more  than  this, 
gentlemen ;  mthout  them  history  is  an  incompre- 
hensible enigma.  What,  indeed,  is  the  principal 
question  of  history,  from  Moses  to  Pius  IX.,  those 
two  extreme  terms  of  the  world's  annals  ?  Is  it 
the  rise  and  fall  of  the  empires  of  Assyria,  the 
Trojan  war,  the  conquests  of  Alexander,  the  for 


222 


tunes  of  the  Romans,  tlie  rise  of  modern  nations, 
tlie  discovery  of  America,  tlie  progress  of  science 
and  history  in  modern  times  ?  No  ;  none  of  these 
questions,  however  vast  they  may  be,  is  the  jorin- 
cipal  question  of  history,  the  one  that  embraces 
the  totality  of  the  three  thousand  years  that  live 
in  the  memory  of  mankind.  The  principal  ques- 
tion, because  it  contains  all,  tlie  past,  the  present, 
and  the  future,  is  this :  the  world  having  lived  in 
idolatry  in  the  times  before  Augustus,  how  has  it 
become  Christian  since  his  time?  These  are  the 
two  sides  that  divide  all  history,  the  side  of  anti- 
quity, and  the  side  of  later  ages ;  the  one  idola- 
ter, plunged  into  the  most  licentious  materialism  ; 
the  other  Christian,  purified  at  the  sources  of  a 
complete  spirituality.  In  the  ancient  world  the 
flesh  publicly  prevailed  over  the  spirit ;  in  the 
present,  the  spirit  publicly  prevails  over  the  flesh. 
What  has  caused  this?  Who  has  produced  a 
change  so  great  and  so  general  in  extent  between 
the  two  periods  of  mankind  ?  Who  has  so  greatly 
modified  the  human  form  and  the  course  of  his- 
tory? Your  fathers  adored  idols;  you,  their  pos- 
terity, descended  from  them  by  a  corrupted  blood, 
you  adore  Jesus  Christ.  Your  fathers  were  ma- 
terialists even  in  their  worship ;  you  are  spirit- 


223 


ualists  even  in  your  passions.  Your  fathers 
denied  all  that  you  believe;  you  deny  all  that 
they  believed.  Again  I  ask  what  is  the  reason 
of  this  ?  There  are  no  events  without  causes  in 
history,  any  more  than  there  is  movement  without 
a  motive  power  in  mathematics.  What  is  the 
historical  cause  which  converted  the  idolatrous 
world  into  the  Christian  world,  which  gave  Char- 
lemagne as  a  successor  to  Nero  ?  You  are  com- 
pelled to  know  or  at  least  to  seek  it.  We  Catho- 
lics say  that  this  prodigious  change  corresponds 
to  the  appearance  upon  earth  of  a  man  who  called 
himself  the  Son  of  God,  sent  to  take  away  the 
sins  of  the  world — who  preached  humility,  purity^ 
penance,  gentleness,  peace;  who  lived  piously 
among  the  poor  and  lowly ;  who  died  on  a  cross, 
with  his  arms  extended  over  us  to  bless  us;  who 
left  us  his  teaching  and  his  example  in  the  Gos- 
pel ;  and  who,  having  thus  touched  the  souls  of 
many,  subdued  their  pride  and  corrected  their 
senses,  has  left  in  them  a  tranquil  joy  so  marvel- 
lous that  its  perfume  has  spread  to  the  ends  of 
the  world,  and  has  won  even  sensuality.  We  say 
this.  Yes,  a  man,  a  single  man,  has  founded  the 
empire  of  Christians  upon  the  ruins  of  the  idola- 
trous empire  ;  and  we  do  not  marvel  thereat,  l)e- 


224 


cause  we  have  remarked  in  history  that  all  good 
as  well  as  all  evil  invariably  springs  from  a  single 
principle,  from  a  man,  the  depositary  of  the  hid- 
den force  of  the  demon,  or  of  the  invisilde  force 
of  God.  We  say  this,  and  we  base  our  declara- 
tion upon  uninterrupted  monuments  which  begin 
with  Moses  and  reach  to  us ;  we  appeal  also  to  a 
publicity  of  thirty-two  consecutive  centuries;  we 
join  together  the  Jewish  people,  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Catholic  Church,  or  rather  we  do  not  join  these, 
they  appear  before  us  closely  linked  together  in  a 
course  of  things  sustained  the  one  by  the  other ; 
we  appeal,  in  fine,  to  the  whole  web  of  history, 
and  in  the  name  of  that  immense  monument 
which  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  admit  and  to 
explain,  we  say  to  you :  Jesus  Christ  is  the  su- 
preme expression  of  history,  he  is  its  key  and  its 
revelation.  Not  only  does  he  form  a  part  of 
history,  he  has  taken  his  place  in  it  in  the  midst 
of  all  its  events,  without  difiiculty  and  without 
effort,  but  history  is  not  possible  without  him. 
Endeavor,  in  following  the  line  of  these  monu- 
ments, to  pass  from  the  ancient  to  the  new  world, 
and  to  explain  to  yourselves  how,  without  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Pope  has  replaced  the  Caesars  at  the 
Vatican.      Is  it  possible  to  do  this?     And  if  a 


225 


gleam  of  good  faith  remain  in  the  depths  of 
your  soul,  will  you  not  be  compelled  to  say 
with  us :  Yes,  it  is  in  Christ  on  Calvary,  in  that 
blood  which  was  shed,  that  the  renovation  of  the 
human  race  began. 

Therefore,  gentlemen,  before  our  epoch,  none 
dared  to  deny  the  historical  reality  of  Jesus  Christ, 
not  one.  Before  you,  long  before  you,  Jesus 
Christ  had  enemies,  for  before  you  pride  existed, 
and  pride  is  the  chief  enemy  of  Jesus  Christ.'  Be- 
fore you,  Jesus  Christ  had  enemies,  for  before  you 
sensuality  existed,  and  sensuality  is  the  second 
enemy  of  Jesus  Christ.  Before  you,  Jesus  Christ 
had  enemies,  for  before  you  egotism  existed,  and 
egotism  is  the  third  enemy  of  Jesus  Christ.  And 
yet,  when  he  appeared  for  the  first  time,  when  he 
came  with  his  cross  to  sap  your  pride,  to  insult 
your  senses,  to  drag  down  your  egotism  to  the 
very  dust,  what  was  said  to  him  ?  Pride,  sensu- 
ality, egotism,  had  then,  as  now,  able  men  in  their 
service — Celsus,  Porphyry,  all  the  Alexandrian 
school,  and  the  lovers  of  this  life,  and  the  throng 
of  courtiers,  ever  ready  to  find  in  truth  a  secret 
enemy  to  power.  What  said  they  of  Christ? 
They  pursued  him  by  putting  his  followers  to 
death;  by  deriding  his  life;  by  disputing  his 
10* 


226 


dogmas;  by  oppression  called  to  the  help  of  a 
cause  which  betrayed  liberty;  but  their  books, 
subsisting  in  a  thousand  remains  by  the  aid  of 
printing — which  I  just  now  called  the  salvation 
of  history — their  books  confirm  him ;  not  one  of 
them  has  denied  the  reality  of  the  life  of  Jesus 
Christ.  You  alone,  coming  eighteen  centuries 
after,  and  thinking  that  time,  which  confirms  his- 
tory, is  its  destroyer,  you  have  dared  to  Ijattle 
against  the  very  light  of  the  sun,  hoping  that 
every  negation  is  at  least  a  shadow,  and  that 
human  folly,  seeking  a  refuge  against  the  severity 
of  Jesus  Christ,  would  accept  of  any  arm  as  a  de 
fence,  and  of  any  shield  as  a  protection.  You 
have  deceived  yourselves.  History  subsists  in 
spite  of  negation,  as  the  heart  of  man  subsists  in 
spite  of  the  debauchery  of  the  senses ;  and  Jesus 
Christ  remains  under  the  shelter  of  unexampled 
publicity,  and  of  a  necessity  to  which  there  is  no 
counterpoise,  upon  the  summit  of  history. 

Nevertheless,  as  a  last  hope  you  say  to  me  :  If 
it  were  a  question  of  human  events  only,  such  as 
those  of  which  the  ordinary  annals  of  nations  are 
composed,  it  is  manifest  that  the  life  of  Jesus 
Christ  contained  in  the  Gospels  would  be  beyond 
all  discussion.     But  in  that  life  it  is  a  question  of 


227 


events  which  bear  no  comparison  with  those  we 
habitually  witness.  It  is  a  question  of  a  God 
who  made  himself  man,  who  died  and  rose  again  ; 
how  is  it  possible  for  us  to  admit  such  strange 
things  upon  a  mass  of  human  evidence  ?  For,  in 
fine,  public  writings,  public  events,  the  public  and 
general  web  of  history,  all  this  assemblage  of 
proofs  is  purely  human ;  and  it  is  upon  this  mor- 
tal foundation  that  you  base  a  history  where  all 
is  superhuman.  The  base  must  evidently  sink 
under  such  a  weight. 

Gentlemen,  I  do  not  undervalue  the  force  of 
that  objection.  Yes;  I  understand  that  when  it 
is  a  question  of  the  history  of  a  God  it  needs 
another  pen  than  that  which  traces  the  history  of 
the  greatest  man  in  the  world  ;  this  is  true.  But 
I  also  believe  that  God  has  solved  this  objection 
by  creating  for  his  only  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  a  his- 
tory which  is  not  human,  that  is  to  say,  which,  in 
its  proportions,  is  so  much  above  the  nothingness 
of  man,  that  the  ordinary  power  of  history  would 
evidently  not  have  sufficed  for  it.  Where  indeed 
will  you  find  such  connection  as  that  of  the  Jew- 
ish people,  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  Catholic  Church  ? 
Where  is  there  anything  to  be  compared  with  it  ? 
And,  moreover — without  returning  to  what  has 


228 


already  been  said — where  amongst  all  the  histo- 
ries known  to  you,  do  you  find  any  which  foi 
three  centuries  had  witnesses  who  gave  to  it  the 
testimony  of  their  blood  ?  Where  are  the  wit- 
nesses who  have  given  their  lives  in  favor  of  the 
authenticity  of  the  greatest  men  or  the  greatest 
events  ?  Who  died  to  certify  the  histoiy  of  Alex- 
ander ?  Who  died  to  certify  the  history  of  Caesar  ? 
Who  ?  No  one.  No  one  in  the  world  has  ever 
shed  his  blood  to  add  another  degree  of  evidence 
to  the  historical  certainty  of  an^iihing  whatever. 
Men  leave  history  to  take  its  course.  But  to  form 
it  with  their  blood,  to  cement  historical  testimony 
with  human  blood  for  three  centuries,  is  what  has 
never  been  witnessed,  save  on  the  part  of  Chris- 
.  tians  for  Jesus  Christ.  We  were  interrogated 
during  three  centuries,  and  asked  to  declare  who 
we  were ;  we  answered :  Christians.  They  then 
said  to  us :  Blaspheme  the  name  of  Christ ;  and 
we  replied  :  We  are  Christians.  They  put  us  to 
death  for  this  in  frightful  tortures ;  and  in  the 
hands  of  our  executioners  our  last  sigh  exhaled, 
as  a  balm  for  the  dying  and  a  testimony  for  the 
living  to  all  el^ernity,  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ. 
We  did  not  die  for  opinions,  but  for  realities — 
the  very  name  of  martyrs  proves  it ;  and  Pascal 


229 


has  well  said  :  "  I  believe  in  Avitnesses  who  give 
the  testimony  of  their  Llood."  And  although 
there  may  be  presumption  in  attempting  to  speak 
better  than  Pascal,  I  shall  however  say  something 
better :  I  believe  in  the  human  race  dying  for  its 
faith. 

Shall  I  give  you  another  sign  which  shows  the 
elevation  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  history,  above  all 
history?  Tell  me  which  amongst  the  ancient 
peoples  of  the  world,  the  most  celebrated  in  your 
eyes,  has  left  guardians  upon  his  tomb  to  protect 
its  history?  Where  are  the  survivors  of  the 
Assyrians,  the  Medes,  the  Greeks,  the  Komans  ? 
Where  are  they  ?  What  defunct  people  renders 
testimony  to  its  life  ?  One  alone,  the  Je\vish 
people,  at  the  same  time  dead  and  living,  a  relic 
of  the  ancient  world  in  the  new,  and  a  self-ac- 
cusing witness  in  favor  of  Christ — l)y  the  Jews 
crucified.  God  has  preserved  them  for  us  as  an 
irreproachable  witness ;  I  produce  them,  they 
are  there.  Behold  them!  The  blood  is  in  their 
hands.  And  we  also.  Catholics,  we,  the  Church, 
we  are  by  their  side,  we  speak  with  them  and  as 
loudly  as  they.  As  a  li\nng  and  a  universal  soci- 
ety we  bear,  in  the  wounds  of  our  martyrs,  tlie 
blood  shed  by  us  to  render  testimony  to  the  liis- 


230 


tory  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  on  their  side,  as  a  soci- 
ety, living  also,  universal  also,  the  Jewish  people 
bear  blood  which  is  not  their  own,  but  which  is 
not  less  eloquent  than  ours.  There  are  two  wit- 
nesses here,  and  two  streams  of  blood.  Behold 
them !  Look  on  the  ris-ht  hand  and  on  the  left  of 
Christ,  behold  the  people  who  crucified  him,  be- 
hold the  people  who  sprang  from  his  cross.  They 
both  speak  the  same  thing  to  you,  both,  during 
eighteen  centuries,  suffer  a  martyrdom  which  is 
not  the  same,  but  which  has  the  same  source,  both 
are  enemies — ^they  meet  but  in  one  single  thing, 
tlesus  Christ !  Ah !  you  would  defy  God !  Learn 
that  when  man  defies  God,  his  Providence  inevit- 
ably prepares  an  answer  for  him,  and  you  have 
just  heard,  on  the  subject  of  Jesus  Christ,  the 
answer  he  has  given  to  you. 

I  conclude,  gentlemen :  to  deny  the  historical 
reality  of  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  is  an  act  of 
folly,  an  act  of  desperation.  And  you  wonder 
perhaps  why  this  has  been  done,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, with  or  without  precaution.  It  is,  because 
the  historical  reality  of  Jesus  Christ  once  admit 
ted,  or  taken  for  granted,  the  sentiment  of  his 
divinity  begins  to  shine  in  the  mind,  and  it  is 
difficult  not  to  yield  more  or  less.      It  was  nee- 


231 


essary  to  gather  clouds  around  an  existence  so 
remarkable,  connected,  moreover,  with  so  many 
things  which  are  remarkable  also.  Were  the 
result  of  negation  only  to  call  forth  proof  of  the 
fact,  it  would  already  have  provoked  discussion, 
and  discussion  is  of  value  on  unattackable  ground ; 
its  prestige  seems  to  be  thereby  lessened.  It  is 
better,  in  fine,  to  attempt  something  than  to  re- 
main inactive.  Then,  hatred  blinds,  it  renders 
the  vision  insensible  to  the  clearest  evidence ; 
and,  in  this  sense,  it  was  fitting  that  the  historical 
reality  of  Jesus  Christ  should  be  attacked,  as 
a  proof  of  the  intellectual  diminution  of  those 
who  become  his  enemies.  Truth  gains  by  the 
attacks  of  the  mind  as  by  those  of  the  body; 
and,  tranquil  in  the  inaccessible  eyrie  where  God 
has  placed  her,  sure  of  herself,  however  she  may 
be  attacked,  she  can  say  to  man,  imitating  a  cele- 
brated line : 

"  Contest,  if  thou  canst ;  and  if  thou  dar'st,  consent !  " 


THE  EFFORTS  OF  RATIONALISM  TO  PERVERT 
THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


My  Loed — Gentlemen, 

In  our  last  conference  I  proved  to  you  tlie  his- 
torical reality  of  Jesus  Chiist.  But  what  is  it  to 
liave  proved  to  you  tlie  historical  reality  of  Jesus 
Christ?  Does  it  mean  that  a  man  called  Jesus 
Christ  undoubtedly  lived  at  a  certain  epoch  ?  If 
we  have  proved  but  this  we  shall  have  proved 
nothing,  for  a  name  is  nothing.  To  j^rove  the 
historical  reality  of  a  personage  is  to  prove  the 
reality  of  the  living  type  which  constitutes  that 
personage.  Thus,  when  I  name  Csesar,  I  do  not 
name  an  indifferent  person,  I  name  the  Roman 
who,  before  Augustus,  conquered  and  governed 
the  Gauls,  who,  recalled  by  the  Senate,  passed 
the  Rubicon,  assumed  the  dictatorship,  and  at  last 
fell  under  the  daggers  of  a  band  of  conspira- 
tors. So,  also,  when  I  name  Jesus  Christ,  I  name 
him  who,  in  the  time  of  Tiberius,  preached  a  reli- 
gious doctrine  in  Judsea,  supported  his  preaching 


233 


by  acts,  about  whicli  you  reserve  your  judgment, 
but  whidi  were  at  least  extraordinary,  who  was 
surrounded  by  disciples,  and,  after  a  condemna- 
tion followed  by  tis  death,  was  presented  to 
the  whole  world  as  living,  and  who,  in  fine, 
founded  that  hierarchy,  that  dogma,  that  worship, 
that  Catholic  Church,  which  we  see  still  living 
before  our  eyes.  And  to  have  proved  the  histori- 
cal reality  of  Jesus  Christ  is  to  have  proved  the 
reality  of  this  type  whose  leading  features  I  have 
just  traced. 

I  have  done  more,  gentlemen  ;  I  have  at  the 
same  time  proved  the  authenticity  of  the  Gos- 
pels. For  a  book  is  authentic  when  it  is  histori- 
cal ;  and  I  have  shown  that  the  Gospels  possess  all 
the  characters  of  history,  that  is  to  say,  that  they 
were  public  writings,  containing  public  events 
adapted  to  the  general  and  public  web  of  the  an- 
nals of  the  human  race.  This  is  its  great  authen- 
ticity. There  is  another,  secondary  and  of  little 
importance,  which  consists  in  knowing  the  pre- 
cise date  of  a  book  and  the  exact  name  of  its 
author.  I  place  it  below  the  former,  because  a 
book  may  have  a  certain  date  and  a  certain 
author  without  possessing  any  historical  value, 
whilst  a  historical  book  bears  with  itself  the  date 


234 


and  tlie  course  of  things  autlientically  promul 
gated  by  invincible  publicity.     The  Gospels  are 
authentic  in  both  ways,  but  as  the  first  and  great 
authenticity  is  of  itself  sufficient,  I  have  confined 
myself  chiefly  to  establishing  it. 

Perhaps  in  listening  to  me,  gentlemen,  you  have 
asked  yourselves  whom  I  was  addressing,  why  I 
took  so  much  pains  about  a  thing  which  did  not 
seem  to  be  contested.  In  this  you  would  have 
deceived  yourselves.  Not  only  in  a  celebrated 
work  on  the  "  Origin  of  all  Religions  "  has  Dupuis 
denied  the  historical  reality  of  Jesus  Christ,  but 
so  also  in  some  degree  does  every  unbeliever,  en- 
deavoring to  raise  up  clouds  between  his  mind 
and  that  formidable  figure  of  the  Son  of  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh.  Hence  it  is  that  you  hear 
it  so  blandly  and  so  falsely  repeated  that  no  con- 
temporary testimony,  out  of  the  Christian  school, 
attests  the  presence  of  Jesus  Christ  upon  the  stage 
of  history.  Hence  it  is  that  the  famous  text  of 
Flavins  Josephus  on  the  life  and  death  of  Christ 
has  been  made  the  object  of  so  much  suspicion. 
There  are  no  unbelievers  whom  the  historical  cer- 
tainty of  the  early  times  of  Christianity  does  not 
disturb  and  importune,  and  who  do  not  set  a  high 
value  upon  the  slightest   doubt  in  regard  to  it. 


235 


It  was  necessary  then  to  take  away  tliis  conso- 
lation from  them — the  more  so,  gentlemen,  as  in 
demonstrating  to  you  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ 
I  had  previously  supposed  the  authenticity  of  his 
person  and  history,  and  because  if  I  had  not  re- 
traced my  steps  in  order  definitely  to  establish  this, 
the  whole  edifice  of  my  demonstration  would  have 
rested  upon  a  gratuitous  hypothesis.  Let  us  to- 
day complete  the  substitution  of  the  reality  for  the 
hypothesis  by  treating  of  another  effort  of  ration- 
alism, no  longer  to  destroy  the  life  of  Jesiis  Christ, 
but  to  pervert  it.  For,  after  having  said  or  sug- 
gested that  the  life  of  Christ  was  a  fal)le,  i-ation- 
alism  itself  perceived  that  it  was  too  much  to  ask 
of  human  credulity;  it  feared  the  all-powerful 
light  of  common  sense ;  and  at  the  beginning  of 
this  century,  not  in  England,  not  in  France,  but 
in  Germany,  a  new  system  has  been  developed. 
The  life  of  Christ,  they  say,  is  not  a  fable,  but  a 
myth.  What  is  a  myth  ?  Is  the  life  of  Christ  a 
myth?  Such  is,  gentlemen,  the  ol>ject  of  this  con- 
ference and  of  your  attention. 

Let  us  first  clearly  understand  the  causes  which 
have  kept  rationalism  from  sanctioning,  by  its 
adhesion,  the  historical  reality  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Assuredly  there  remain  many  questions  to  solve. 


236 


even  when  it  is  admitted  tliat  Jesus  Christ  lived, 
that  his  history  is  authentic,  that  publicity  sheds 
the  clearest  light  upon  the  origins  of  Christianity 
and  Christendom.  Yet,  gentlemen,  when  we  have 
advanced  thus  far,  we  immediately  find  ourselves 
before  a  very  simple  dilemma  :  either  Jesus  Christ 
and  his  apostles  were  sincere,  or  they  were  impos- 
tors; to  say  they  were  sincere  is  in  the  main  to 
admit  the  divinity  of  their  work ;  for,  the  reality 
of  the  life  of  Christ  being  established  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  sincerity  of  their  work  being  ad- 
mitted on  the  other,  we  cannot,  before  the  nature 
and  the  course  of  events  which  form  its  tissue, 
avoid  this  conclusion :  Jesus  Christ  is  God.  If, 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  affirmed  that  Jesus  Christ 
and  his  apostles  were  impostors,  the  position  is 
one  which  the  mind  will  hardly  accept.  And 
why  ?  Because  all  that  belongs  to  Jesus  Christ, 
all  the  apostles,  all  the  martyrs,  manifest  the  sin- 
cerity of  man  in  its  highest  degree ;  because  God 
has  placed  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  the 
life  of  his  apostles,  in  the  death  of  his  martyrs,  a 
character  of  truthfulness  which  leaves  no  room  for 
the  supposition  that  all  that  beautiful  history,  for 
three  whole  centuries,  is  nothing  but  a  mass  of 
imposture  steeped  in  blood.     Moreover,  Christi- 


237 


anity  is  now  sincere ;  it  is  impossible  to  accuse 
of  falsehood  the  multitude  of  civilized  men  who 
believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  who  profess  to  have  the 
daily  demonstration  of  his  divinity,  who  say  that, 
even  independently  of  the  Gospel  history,  the 
actioD  alone  of  Christ  upon  them  manifests  its 
all-powerful  reality ;  and  it  is  the  thesis  of  a  cele- 
brated German,  who,  having  made  the  Mstorical 
void  around  him,  and  inwardly  verifying  to  Ms 
mind  the  influence  of  the  Saviour  of  men,  said 
to  Germany :  But  I  wlio  live,  who  feel,  who 
think,  I  live  with  Jesus  Christ,  I  feel  with  Jesus 
Christ,  I  think  with  Jesus  Christ ;  he  raises  me 
above  myself,  he  purifies  me,  he  gives  me  that 
which  nothing  in  this  world  has  ever  given  me; 
he  is  then  more  than  myself,  more  than  the 
world,  more  than  the  soul,  he  is  God.  Yes,  we  are 
sincere,  and  if  all  Christians  do  not  prove  their 
sincerity  by  their  virtues,  many  of  them  at  least 
render  to  Jesus  Christ  this  testimony  of  their 
faith.  Will  you  dare  to  charge  them  with  hypoc- 
risy? Will  you  dare  to  insult  the  hearts  and 
actions  of  so  great  a  number  of  men  bound  to 
you  by  so  many  ties  ?  Hypocrites  !  And  why  ? 
With  what  object?  What  pleasure  is  there  in 
being  chaste  from  hypocrisy?      What  a  strange 


238 


design,  and  what  a  strange  salary  for  sucli  a  sacri 
iice  !  We  are  then  sincere,  and  we  are  able  to 
say  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  spouse  of  our  souls,  that 
which  Pauline  said  of  Polyeuctes^  and  with  the 
same  feeling : 

"  My  spouse  in  dying  has  left  me  his  light, 
I  see,  I  know,  I  believe  !" 

But  if  Christianity  is  now  sincere,  how  is  it  possi- 
ble that,  from  the  highest  of  all  imposture,  namely, 
that  of  assuming  the  name  of  God,  this  torrent, 
this  sea  of  sincerity,  should  have  spread  its  bays 
and  horizons  even  to  us,  to  the  very  centre  of  ex- 
isting mankind  ?  An  impure  cause  cannot  pro- 
duce a  pure  effect,  and  if  Christianity  is  now 
sincere,  it  was  so  yesterday,  the  day  before,  in  the 
days  of  its  youth,  it  was  so  in  Jesus  Christ,  in  the 
first  heart  whence  it  issued  to  fire  our  own  and 
render  it  true.  Or,  if  you  deny  the  consequence 
under  that  form,  recognize  at  least  in  Jesus  Christ, 
in  his  apostles  and  martyrs,  signs  of  sincerity  still 
greater  even  than  those  of  Christianity  in  the 
present  time,  and  learn  why  unbelief  needs  to 
reject  from  history  the  primitive  times  of  Chris- 
tianity— fearing  lest,  having  once  given  admission 
to  them,  they  would  too  readily  attain  the  crown 


239 


of  incontestable  divinity.     Yes,  onr  ancestors,  the 
■unbelievers  of  France,  showed  the  necessary  bold- 
ness ;  they  placed  the  question  in  its  true  light, 
and  whosoever  does  not  follow  them,  at  all  risk 
and  peril, is  a  coward  or  an  infant  in  the  order  of 
negation.      Our   fathers,  here   as    elsewhere,   ad- 
vanced straight  to  the  heart  of  things ;  with  the 
native  intrepidity  of  their  minds,  they  compre- 
hended that  it  was  needful  to  deny  all  or  to  admit 
all.     I  laud  them  for  it,  for,  after  all,  when  men 
love  error  it  is  better  to  steer  in  it  like  Columbus 
than  like  those  timid  barks  which  fear  to  brave 
the  ocean,  and  break  up  on  the  very  edge  of  the 
shore.     By  advancing  boldly,  the  end  is  sooner 
reached,  and  the  very  mind  which  pursued  error 
has  thus  greater  chances  of  entering  in  full  sail 
into  the  harbor  of  truth. 

German  genius  is  not,  it  seems,  endowed  with 
this  advantage  of  brightness  and  rapidity.  It  is 
this  genius  which  has  created  the  theory  of  the 
myth,  around  which  it  has  hovered  for  fifty  years. 
But  what  is  a  myth  ?  Sweep  away  the  vaulted 
roof  of  this  cathedral,  and  gaze  upon  that  other 
vault  of  which  Pascal  said:  "The  eternal  silence 
of  that  unknown  space  terrifies  me."  Beyond  the 
luminaries  which  your  eye  easily  discovers  there 


240 


as  it  were  on  the  extreme  frontier  of  space,  you 
will  still  perceive  an  array  of  unknown  stars. 
Are  they  the  result  of  vision  deceived  by  dis- 
tance ?  Have  they  a  total  subsistence  ?  Or  rather 
is  the  cause  of  their  apparition  at  the  same  time 
an  optical  illusion  and  a  certain  reality  ?  So  will 
it  be  if,  instead  of  exploring  the  profound  regions 
of  the  firmament,  you  cast  a  prying  glance  upon 
the  frontiers  of  antiquity.  You  Avill  find  there 
recitals  which  will  trouble  your  mind,  uncei'tain 
whether  to  reject  or  to  admit  them.  I  take  Pro- 
metheus, for  example.  You  all  know  the  story 
of  Prometheus — that  daring  man  who  stole  fire 
from  heaven,  and  whom  Jupiter,  in  punishment 
for  so  great  a  sacrilege,  caused  to  be  chained  to  a 
rock,  where  his  liver  is  devoured  by  a  vulture. 
Antiquity  was  full  of  this  story,  upon  which 
^Eschylus  formed  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
tragedies  of  the  Greek  stage.  What  in  fact  was 
Prometheus  ?  Was  it  a  pure  fable  ?  It  is  very 
difficult  to  think  so,  gentlemen ;  man  always 
founds  the  objects  of  his  belief  upon  some  reality, 
and  when  these  objects  have  a  universal  character 
it  is  not  logical  to  treat  them  with  absolute  dis- 
dain. But,  on  another  hand,  would  you  range 
the  story  of  Prometheus   in   history?      This  is 


241 


equally  impossible.  How  can  we  admit  that  a 
man  stole  fire  from  heaven,  that  God  chained  him 
to  a  rock,  and  that  his  liver,  never  diminishing, 
was  ever  preyed  upon  there  by  an  insatiable  vul- 
ture ?  We  are  here  evidently  between  fable  and 
history.  An  event  relative  to  the  religious  desti- 
nies of  the  human  race  occurred  in  the  depths  of 
primordial  ages ;  the  people  carried  its  remembran- 
ces in  their  emigrations ;  but  as  the  shadow  of 
the  past  deepened  upon  the  world  the  true  phy- 
siognomy of  that  antique  tragedy  lost  its  clear- 
ness; imagination  came  to  the  help  of  memory, 
and  Prometheus  chained  to  his  rock  became  the 
popular  expression  of  a  great  crime  followed  by  a 
great  expiation.  This  is  a  myth.  A  myth  is  a 
fact  transfigured  by  an  idea ;  and  the  frontiers  of 
antiquity — I  repeat  the  expression — appear  to  us 
as  it  were  guarded  by  a  legion  of  myths,  which 
are  all  adulterated  expressions  of  certain  truths. 
Such  being  the  case,  says  Dr.  Strauss — one  of 
the  most  celebrated  members  of  the  mythic  school 
— why  should  not  Jesus  Christ  be  a  myth  ?  Why 
should  not  the  Gospels  be  a  collection  of  myths, 
that  is  to  say,  of  real  facts  transfigured  by  ideas  ? 
Let  us  see  if  this  be  not  possible;  and,  in  the 
second  place,  if  it  be  not  real. 
11 


242 


Tliat  it  is  jDossible,  in  the  first  place,  analogy 
leaves  us  hardly  room  for  doubt.  Is  there  a  reli- 
gion, whether  idolatry,  or  Brahminism  or  Budd- 
hism, which  subsists  otherwise  than  by  a  vast  as- 
semblage of  facts  and  ideas  adulterated  the  one  by 
the  other  ?  If  you  deny  this,  Christians,  you  will 
inflict  a  heavy  blow  upon  yourselves.  For  you 
would  thereby  affirm  that  mankind  is  so  wanting 
in  common  sense  as  to  be  capable  of  adoring  for 
centuries  fables  devoid  of  every  kind  of  founda- 
tion, traditional  or  ideal.  Evidently  you  cannot 
deny  it ;  you  must  admit,  under  pain  of  wounding 
your  own  selves,  that  wherever  men  have  bent  the 
knee  with  some  universality  and  perpetuity  they 
have  had  before  them  facts  incrusted  in  concep- 
tions. But  if  this  be  the  general  phenomenon, 
why  may  not  Christianity  have  been  produced 
under  the  empire  of  the  same  law  ?  Doubtless 
Christians  adore  realities ;  Jesus  Christ  is  a  real- 
ity ;  but  with  the  course  of  time  and  the  fascin- 
ation of  a  preconceived  idea,  as  in  all  occasions 
of  like  nature,  the  primordial  fact,  although  cer- 
tain, has  underofone  modifications  in  the  idea  of  its 
adorers  which  take  it  from  pure  history  and  range 
it  in  the  category  of  myths.  That  Jesus  Christ 
has  not  undergone  so  complete  a  transformation 


243 


as  tlie  more  distant  events  of  remote  antiquity, 
may  be  readily  granted  ;  but  the  degree  of  more 
or  less  is  a  secondary  question  only ;  and  it  never- 
theless remains  that  the  person  of  Christ  and  the 
Christian  event  are  comprised  in  the  general  law 
which  links  to  the  myth  all  known  religions. 

So  much  the  less  is  this  to  be  doubted,  as  the 
publication  of  the  Gospels  is  not  contemporary 
with  Jesus  Christ.  From  the  very  avowal  of 
Christians,  many  years  of  tradition  and  preaching 
preceded  the  era  of  the  evangelical  writings ;  and, 
if  we  come  to  exact  criticism,  we  shall  not  be  able 
to  place  the  assured  reign  of  the  New  Testament 
before  the  middle  of  the  second  century.  What 
a  space  left  to  the  imagination  and  to  faith  for 
transformino;  Jesus  Christ ! 

It  is  especially  worthy  of  remark  that  this 
transformation  was  so  much  the  more  easy,  as  the 
Messianic  idea  pre-existed  Jesus  Christ.  Long 
before  he  appeared,  that  idea  flowed  in  the  veins 
of  the  Jewish  people ;  a  vast  number  of  men,  at- 
tentive to  the  voice  of  the  prophets,  looked  for 
the  Messiah  who  was  to  come ;  and  after  Christ 
had  attributed  this  mission  to  himself,  it  was  nat- 
ural that  all  its  features  should  be  applied  to  him. 
The  Messianic  idea  was  the  mould  in  which,  far 


244 


three  centuries,  tlie  myth  of  Jesus  Christ  was 
formed.  Jesus  Christ  had,  so  to  say,  but  to  leave 
things  to  their  own  course,  and  when  he  died  his 
life  entered  of  itself,  like  matter  in  fusion,  into 
the  mould  of  the  Messianic  idea,  whence  at  length 
it  came  forth  such  as  it  now  is  before  the  aston- 
ished eyes  of  generations. 

Analogy,  the  time,  the  preconceived  idea  of  the 
Messiah,  all  these  circumstances  lead  to  the  con- 
clusion that  Christianity  may  have  been  formed, 
like  all  the  religions  of  antiquity,  by  the  princi- 
ple of  mythical  transfiguration.  But  a  closer  ex- 
amination will  lead  us  far  beyond  that  conclusion, 
and  cause  us  to  perceive  in  the  New  Testament 
all  the  characters  of  an  accomplished  myth. 

In  the  first  place,  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ,  as 
related  in  the  Gospels,  is  stamped  with  a  charac- 
ter of  continuous  marvel.  From  the  ano-el  who 
announced  his  conception  in  the  womb  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  up  to  his  resurrection  and  ascen- 
sion, not  a  single  event  in  the  whole  of  that  ex- 
istence is  conformable  with  the  course  of  nature. 
Every  word  developes  a  prodigy,  every  step  is  a 
miracle,  and  the  miracle  seems  constantly  strug- 
gling to  surpass  itself  and  to  confound  the  last 
hopes  of  reason.      Now,  the    marvellous  is  pre- 


245 


cisely  tlie  inseparable   companion   of  tlie  myth, 
and  its  seat  is  tlie  same.     Where,  in  fact,  do  we 
find  the  marvellous?     Is  it  before  our  eyes — near 
to  us,  in  the  modern  world?     Never.     All  that 
we    see   is    simple    and   natural  :    general   laws, 
whence  proceeds  a  constant  order,  governing  the 
world  which  is  before  us  ;  God  does  not  act  in  it 
by  any  sudden   and   capricious  intervention,  but 
he  leaves  to  secondary  causes  their  indissoluble 
succession.     "Where  then  do  we  find  the  marvel- 
lous?    There  even  w^here  we  find  the  myth — in 
antiquity.     Antiquity  is  the  seat  of  the  one  and 
the  other;  and  the  myth  itself  is  revealed  to  us 
only  by  the  presence  of  the  marvellous.     For  if 
nothing  were  marvellous  in  antiquity,  all  would 
be   history.      But  what   then   is   it   that  distin- 
guishes the  marvellous  in  regard  to  Jesus  Christ 
from  the  marvellous  elsewhere  ?    In  himself,  noth- 
ing ;  as  to  place,  nothing  still,  since  that  place  is 
antiquity.      Why,  then,  may  we  ask,  do  you  di- 
vide antiquity  in  twain,  and   call   one  false  and 
the  other  true?      Why  reject  in  the  myth  that 
which  was  marvellous  before  Jesus   Christ,  and 
raise  to  the  rank  of  history  the  marvellous  which 
is   contemporary  with   him  ?      Keason    seizes  no 
motive  for  this  distinction,  if  it  be  not  that  you 


246 


call  the  time  of  Jesus  Christ  a  historical  perit:)d, 
in  opposition  to  other  epochs  which  you  call  fabu- 
lous. But  the  marvellous  is  the  very  character 
that  distinguishes  fabulous  from  historical  ages; 
for,  without  this,  where  would  be  the  principle 
of  their  distinction  ? 

In  the  second  place,  it  is  manifest,  on  the  first 
reading  of  the  Gospels,  that  they  present  no 
chronological  suite,  nothing  which  announces  his- 
tory, but  that  they  are  simple  materials  collected 
in  minds  at  hazard,  without  the  slightest  attempt 
having  been  made  to  give  them  any  appearance 
of  harmony.  All  is  in  confusion  and  contradic- 
tion there.  Dr.  Strauss  has  had  but  to  read  and 
let  his  pen  run  freely,  to  form  four  volumes  of  the 
inconceivable  blunders  of  which  they  are  full. 
And  we  must  not  blame  the  evangelists  for  this ; 
it  is  the  very  proof  of  their  sincerity.  They  took 
the  myth  as  they  found  it,  vague,  indefinite,  con- 
tradictory— like  all  that  comes  from  the  gloomy 
confluence  of  facts  and  ideas.  More  than  a  cen- 
tury had  passed  over  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ; 
shreds  of  that  life  had  been  carried  from  the  east 
to  the  west,  under  the  impression  of  sentiments 
and  ideas  of  diverse  origins;  and,  although  the 
type  possessed  some  unity  because  of  the  Messi- 


2^7 


anic  form  wliicli  was  tlie  primitive  starting-point, 
it  was  nevertheless  impossible  for  the  final  elabo- 
ration of  so  many  elements  not  to  bear  visible 
marks  of  disagreement  and  variety. 

Such,  gentlemen,  is  the  reasoning  of  the  mythic 
school.  I  believe  I  have  not  hidden  any  of  its 
force  from  you ;  I  do  not  like  to  depreciate  the 
enemies  of  truth.  Why  should  I?  Were  I  to 
succeed  for  a  moment  in  abusing  your  j)enetration 
and  memory,  on  returning  to  your  homes  a  glance 
at  the  work  of  Dr.  Strauss  would  reveal  to  you 
my  w^ant  of  sincerity,  and  the  cause  I  defend,  for 
the  half-hour  it  may  have  gained,  would  have  lost 
a  century  in  your  minds.  No,  gentlemen,  it  is  less 
than  a  duty,  it  is  a  pleasure  to  be  sincere  when 
we  have  truth  on  our  side ;  and  if  the  arguments 
of  the  mythic  school  have  wanted  force  in  passing 
by  my  mouth,  it  is  because,  after  three  months 
devoted  to  the  study  of  them,  it  is  not  possible 
for  me  to  impart  to  them  more  attractiveness  and 
more  authority.  Do  not,  however,  deceive  your- 
selves; the  work  is  as  skilful  as  it  could  be. 
You  perceive  that  the  historical  reality  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  no  longer  denied ;  they  no  longer  rush 
to  their  destruction  against  the  very  constitution 
of  history  ;  and  yet  Jesus  Christ,  although  remain- 


248 


ing  as  a  reality,  is  disarmed  of  tlie  power  of  that 
position.  On  another  hand,  it  is  no  longer  neces- 
sary to  combat  the  impression  of  sincerity  which 
results  from  his  life  and  that  of  his  discij)les. 
That  sincerity  is  admitted.  Jesus  Christ  believed 
in  himself,  and  men  believed  in  him.  They  be- 
lieved in  him  before  Caesar,  they  believe  in  him 
before  incredulity.  Your  fathers  gave  their  blood 
for  realities  and  ideas ;  you  do  the  same.  Only 
you  do  not  properly  understand  them ;  and  it  is 
permitted,  it  is  honorable,  it  is  glorious,  to  live 
and  die  for  things  which  we  do  not  proj^erly  un- 
derstand. 

Gentlemen,  I  believe  this  exposition  is  suffi- 
cient. I  will  now  meet  this  great  engine  of  Ger- 
manic warfare. 

Shall  I  deny  the  existence  of  myths  ?  No,  gen- 
tlemen ;  the  myth  appears  to  me  historically  as 
of  all  things  in  the  world  the  most  veritable.  I 
admit  that  man,  left  to  tradition  during  a  long 
course  of  ages,  ends  by  no  longer  clearly  perceiv- 
ing the  limit  and  the  primitive  text  of  events. 
Like  a  picture  before  which  the  spectator  con- 
stantly retreats,  the  human  race  retreats  before 
the  past;  and  however  attentively  it  may  be 
watched,  at  length  it  becomes  obscure.     The  im- 


249 


agination,  liowever,  dwelling  upon  this  now  dis- 
tant scene,  adds  new  features  to  it,  the  idea  gov- 
erns the  fact,  and  something  is  produced  which  is 
neither  history  nor  fable,  but  that  which  we  call 
a  myth.  Mythology  is  the  assemblage  of  all  the 
creations  of  the  human  mind  between  the  gloom 
and  the  light  of  antiquity.  For,  remark  where  is 
the  theatre  of  myths.  It  is  antiquity,  or  rather  it 
is  tradition  abandoned  alone  to  the  course  of 
mankind,  which  bears  it  alono:  in  advancino-  and 
pressing  onward.  The  seat  of  the  myth  is  in  pure 
tradition.  But  wherever  writing  appears,  wher 
ever  there  is  a  fixed  recital,  wherever  the  indelible 
record  is  placed  before  the  eyes  of  generations,  at 
that  moment  the  mythic  power  of  man  vanishes. 
For  then  the  reality  remains  before  him  in  its 
true  proportions,  it  remains  in  coimnand  of  his 
imagination,  and  a  thousand  years  can  do  no 
more  against  it  than  a  single  day.  Never,  since 
the  time  of  Herodotus  and  Tacitus,  has  any  one 
shovm  you  myths  in  history.  Has  Charlemagne 
become  a  myth  after  a  thousand  years  ?  Clovis 
after  thirteen  hundred  years  ?  Augustus,  Caesar, 
in  retreating  into  the  past,  have  they  assumed  any 
mythical  appearance  ?  No  ;  the  most  distant 
point  where  the  modern  historian  seeks  to  dis- 
11* 


250 


cover  the  myth  is,  for  example,  the  beginning  of 
Rome,  Romulus  and  Remus.  And  why?  Be- 
cause although  they  approached  writing,  although 
it  existed  before  them  in  other  countries,  it  had 
not  yet  received  the  guardianshi]3  of  Roman  his- 
tory. But,  as  soon  as  writing  exists,  as  soon  as  it 
seizes  the  general  web  of  history,  the  mythical 
mould  is  from  that  moment  broken. 

Now,  Jesus  Christ  does  hot  belons;  to  the  reio;n 
of  tradition,  but  to  the  reign  of  writing.  He  was 
born  at  a  period  when  writing  was  fully  estab- 
lished, in  a  land  where  it  was  impossible  for  the 
myth  to  take  root  and  grow.  Providence  had 
foreseen  all  and  prepared  all  beforehand ;  and  if 
you  have  sometimes  wondered  why  Jesus  Christ 
came  so  late,  you  now  see  a  reason  for  it.  He 
came  so  late  not  to  be  in  antiquity,  to  have  his 
place  in  the  centre  of  writing ;  for  he  does  not 
stand  first  there ;  he  was  careful  to  provide 
against  being  so  placed ;  fifteen  hundred  years 
preceded  him,  and  if  you  count  only  from  Hero- 
dotus, five  hundred  years  preceded  him.  There- 
fore he  is  modern,  and  even  should  the  world  last 
for  numberless  ages,  as  by  means  of  writing  all  is 
present,  since  at  a  glance  and  with  the  rapidity 
of  lightning  we  survey  the  whole  chain  of  history. 


251 


Jesus  Clirist  is  ever  new,  standing  in  the  full 
reality  of  the  events  which  compose  the  known 
and  certain  life  of  the  human  race. 

I  might  stoj)  here,  gentlemen;  for  you  see 
clearly  that  the  mythic  engine  is  overthrown, 
since  the  fundamental  condition  of  the  myth, 
which  is  the  absence  of  wi'iting,  is  wanting  in 
regard  to  Jesus  Christ.  Dr.  Strauss  himself  ex- 
pressly admits  that  the  myth  is  not  j^ossible  with 
writing,  therefore  he  endeavors  to  strip  Jesus 
Christ  of  the  scriptural  character  by  placing  at  as 
remote  a  period  as  possible  the  publication  of  the 
Gospels.  We  shall  soon  see  the  weakness  of  that 
resource,  if  you  will  permit  me  to  follow  step  by 
step  the  trace  of  his  reasoning. 

Analogy,  says  he,  is  against  Jesus  Christ,  since 
the  myth  is  the  basis  of  all  known  religions. 
This  I  deny.  The  myth  is  the  basis  of  all  the 
religions  of  antiquity,  save  the  Mosaic,  because  all 
those  religions  plunged  their  roots  in  a  tradition 
of  which  writing  had  not  fixed  the  shadows,  and 
so  rendered  deflections  impossible.  But  writing 
having  appeared,  even  the  false  religions,  such  as 
that  of  Mahomet,  have  taken  a  historical  con- 
sistency which  manifestly  separates  them  from 
the  priesthoods  and  corrupted  dogmas  of  antiq- 


252 


uity.  The  difference  is  clear.  This  is  why  Ave 
Christians,  and  you  who  fight  against  Christianity, 
never  think  of  combating  Mahomet  by  making  a 
myth  of  his  person,  and  of  the  Koran  a  mythical 
compilation.  The  force  of  writing,  under  the  em- 
pire of  wbich  lie  lived,  interdicts  to  us  even  the 
thought  of  such  chimerical  temerity.  We  are 
constrained  to  avow  that  he  is  a  real  personage, 
that  he  wrote  or  dictated  the  Koran,  organized 
Islamism ;  and  our  sole  resource  against  his  pre- 
tensions in  regard  to  us  is  to  treat  him  as  an  im- 
postor, to  say  boldly  to  him  :  Thou  hast  lied  ! 
But  here  the  difficulty  is  greater,  the  success 
mucli  more  costly ;  and  this  is  why  rationalism 
disputes  with  so  muck  art  the  powerful  reality  of 
Christ.  However  this  may  be,  the  analogy  which 
is  invoked  to  spread  over  him  the  clouds  of 
the  myth  is  an  analogy  without  foundation.  A 
great  line  of  demarcation  separates  into  two 
hemispheres  all  known  religions  —  the  mythic 
hemisphere  and  the  real  hemisphere ;  the  former 
contains  all  the  religions  fonned  in  primitive 
times  under  the  empire  of  floating  traditions,  the 
latter  contains  the  true  or  false  religions  which 
writing  has  enchained  in  a  settled  history  and 
dogma.     To  reject  the  former,  it  suffices  to  oppose 


253 


to  them  tlieir  uiytliical  nature;  to  reject  the  lat- 
ter, it  is  necessary  to  enter  into  the  discussion 
of  their  historical,  intellectual,  moral,  and  social 
value. 

It  is  true  that  the  scriptural  character  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  contested,  but  how  ?  Because,  say  they, 
it  is  impossible  to  prove  that  the  promulgation 
of  the  Gospels  took  place  before  the  year  150  of 
the  Christian  era,  whence  it  follows  that  the  type 
of  Christ  floated,  during  more  than  a  century,  at 
the  mercy  of  tradition.  Suppose,  gentlemen,  that 
I  admit  this ;  suppose  that  I  admit  that  our  Gos- 
pels did  not  appear  before  the  year  150.  Bear 
in  mind  that  before  150  writing  existed  elsewhere 
than  in  the  Christian  school ;  it  existed  among 
the  Jews,  the  Greeks,  the  Romans;  over  the 
whole  space  upon  which  the  question  of  Chris- 
tianity was  disputed ;  history  was  founded  by 
the  publicity  and  immutability  of  the  monuments. 
Before  150,  Jesus  Christ,  dead  and  risen  again, 
was  announced  in  all  the  synagogues  that  covered 
the  surface  of  the  Roman  world,  and  even  beyond 
it ;  he  was  publicly  announced  in  the  palace  of 
the  Caesars,  and  in  the  pretorium  of  all  the  pro- 
consuls. Before  150,  I  have  cited  Tacitus  and 
Pliny  the   Younger,  who  attest   that  it  was  so. 


254* 

That  preaching,  those  testimonies,  those  discus- 
sions, that  struggle,  that  blood,  all  was  public, 
was  written ;  it  was  not  a  dead  tradition  left  to 
the  chances  of  time  and  imagination  during  a 
thousand  years  of  indifference  and  peace.  At  the 
same  moment  men  gave  their  teaching  and  their 
life;  and  three  communities  together,  supremely 
interested  in  what  was  passing — the  Christian 
community,  the  Jemsh,  and  the  Roman  —  met 
upon  the  battle-field,  the  traditional  limit  of 
which  you  circumscribe  within  the  period  of  lit- 
tle more  than  a  century.  What !  those  Jews  to 
whom  it  was  said:  You  have  killed  Jesus  Christ; 
those  princes  and  those  presidents  whose  orders 
were  trampled  under  foot  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ ;  not  one  of  them  perceived  that  it  was  all 
only  a  myth  in  the  state  of  formation  ?  No  ;  all 
was  steeped  in  blood,  and  consequently  in  reality ; 
all  was  in  discussion,  and  consequently  in  the 
strength  and  glory  of  publicity,  which  is  the  foun- 
dation of  all  history.  It  matters  little  then  what 
date  the  Gospels  bear,  for  history  sup2:)orts  the 
Gospels.  If  they  did  not  appear  before  a  hundred 
and  twenty  years  after  Jesus  Christ,  they  existed 
before  they  appeared,  they  lived  in  the  mouth  of 
the  apostles,  in  the  blood  of  the  martyrs,  in  the 


255 


hatred  of  tlie  world,  in  the  breasts  of  millions  of 
men  who  confessed  Jesus  Christ  dead  and  risen 
again  !  What  a  pitiable  resource,  gentlemen, 
what  weakness !  To  compare  a  religion  whose 
origin  is  so  public  and  militant,  and  whose  tradi- 
tion could  have  preceded  writing  only  a  hundred 
and  twenty  years,  to  those  religions  without  his- 
tory, plunged  for  two  thousand  years  in  the  still 
waters  of  a  tradition  which  was  confided  to  no 
one,  and  for  which  no  one  ever  gave  a  drop  of  his 
blood  ! 

I  hardly  need  to  tell  you,  gentlemen,  that  we 
do  not  accept  the  date  which  they  attempt  to 
assign  to  the  promulgation  of  the  Gospels.  The 
Gospels  are  public  writings,  containing  public 
facts  which  enter  into  the  public  web  of  history; 
they  bear  the  names  of  three  apostles,  and  of  a 
celebrated  disciple,  who  were  public  men  in  a 
public  society ;  now,  it  is  impossible  that  such  an 
attribution,  under  such  circumstances,  should  be 
contrary  to  truth.  The  mathematical  laws  of 
publicity  do  not  permit  it.  The  Gospels  are 
apostles;  they  possess  the  value  of  their  testi- 
mony, and  the  date  of  their  life,  that  is  to  say, 
the  date  of  a  contemporary  life,  and  the  value  of 
a   contemporary  testimony.      This  detail  of  au- 


256 


thenticity  blends  itself  with  the  general  authen- 
ticity of  the  Christian  origin,  and  is  not  separable 
therefrom.  Judge  yet  once  more  of  the  relation 
existing  between  such  monuments  and  the  ob- 
scure myths  emerging  from  the  silent  and  dark 
abyss  of  remote  antiquity. 

In  vain,  in  order  to  place  Jesus  Christ  in  a 
more  remote  period  than  his  time,  have  they  had 
recourse  to  the  Messianic  idea  which  prepared 
his  coming.  In  the  first  place,  the  Messianic  was 
not  a  myth;  it  appertained  to  a  scriptural  peo- 
ple, a  people  who  wrote  and  who  were  written 
about;  and  the  Messianic  idea  itself  was  a  part 
of  their  writing.  The  idea  and  the  fact  were 
fixed.  But  even  had  Messianism  primitively  been 
a  myth,  it  could  no  longer  preserve  that  char- 
acter in  its  application  to  Jesus  Christ.  For 
that  application  to  Jesus  Christ  was  modern; 
it  took  place  at  a  scriptural  and  public  epoch, 
and,  consequently,  whatever  it  may  have  been  in 
the  past,  the  myth  disappeared  in  the  broad  day 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  his  age.  The  real  question 
extinguished  the  chimerical  question. 

There  remain,  gentlemen,  the  mythic  characters 
which  they  pretend  to  discover  in  the  very  history 
of  Jesus  Christ.     The  first  of  these  characters  is 


257 


tlie  marvellous.  The  marvellous,  say  tbey,  is  the 
mythic  character,  properly  so  called ;  wherever  it 
shows  itself  history  disappears ;  for  a  miracle  be- 
ing impossible  in  itself,  every  narration  contain- 
ing it  would  evidently  not  be  historical.  There- 
fore, says  Dr.  Strauss,  I  overthrow  your  dogma- 
tism by  this  single  expression :  The  Gospel  is  a 
tissue  of  miracles,  now  miracles  are  impossible, 
their  history  is  then  impossible  also,  and  conse- 
quently that  history  does  not  exist.  It  can  be 
but  a  myth. 

Whether  a  miracle  be  impossible  or  not,  is  a 
metaphysical  question  of  which  I  have  already 
treated,  and  to  which  I  shall  not  return.  But,  at 
least,  it  is  a  question.  You  rationalists  do  not 
admit  the  possibility  of  the  sovereign  action  of 
God  in  this  world ;  we  Christians  admit  that  pos- 
sibility. Now,  we  are  men  like  yourselves,  intel- 
ligent beings  like  yourselves ;  if  you  are  numer- 
ous, we  are  more  so  than  you  ;  if  you  are  learned, 
we  are  as  learned  as  you.  And  whilst  you  deny 
the  possibility  of  a  miracle,  we  daily  ask  God  to 
perform  miracles,  being  fully  persuaded .  that  he 
thus  manifests  his  power  and  goodness  towards 
us,  even  in  the  present  day.  We  go  further,  we 
do  not  comprehend  the  idea  of  God  without  the 


258 


idea  of  a  sovereignty  able  to  manifest  itself  by 
the  omnipotence  of  its  action ;  so  that,  for  us,  the 
negation  of  tlie  possibility  of  the  miracle  is  the 
negation  of  the  very  idea  of  God.  God,  accord- 
ing to  us,  is  miraculous  in  his  nature ;  and  if  his- 
tory ceases  by  miracles,  we  think  that  God  ceases 
without  them.  You  see  that  an  abyss  separates 
these  two  sentiments.  What  follows?  It  follows 
that  the  possibility  of  miracles  is  a  question ;  and 
consequently  to  determine  the  reality  of  history 
by  the  presence  or  absence  of  miracles,  is  but  to 
decide  one  question  by  another  question — a  mode 
of  proceeding  which  is  contrary  to  the  rules  of 
lo2:ic  and  common  sense.  What !  documents  are 
authentic,  they  are  linked  together  and  form  a 
visible  and  continuous  order,  they  blend  with 
the  whole  course  of  the  public  life  of  mankind, 
they  are  irrefragable,  certain,  sacred,  it  is  an  act 
of  folly  to  assail  them ;  but  the  finger  of  God  is 
seen  in  them,  that  power  which  created  the  world 
— and  that  is  enough,  history  has  disappeared  ! 
You  will  not  ask  me,  gentlemen,  even  supposing 
that  miracles  may  be  problematical  in  themselves, 
to  deny  the  certain  because  of  the  uncertain.  We 
Christians  admit  the  uncertain  on  the  faith  of  the 
certalii :  each  has  his  own  logic. 


259 


Nevertheless,  say  they,  the  marvellous  is  the  only 
character  that  distinguishes  fable  from  history. 
It  is  not  so,  gentlemen ;  the  line  of  demarcation  be 
tween  history  and  fable  lies  elsewhere ;  it  lies  in 
the  difference  between  things  without  continuity 
and  without  any  public  monuments,  and  things 
which  possess  continuity,  and  are  firmly  based  on 
all  sides  upon  publicity.  I  have  already  said 
this  ;  I  shall  not  repeat  it. 

Is  Dr.  Strauss  more  fortunate  in  that  which 
forms  the  basis  of  his  work — the  exposure  of  in- 
numerable mistakes  and  contradictions  of  our 
evangelists  ?  I  think  not.  I  have  read  his  work 
with  attention  and  labor,  and  I  did  so  in  this 
manner.  After  having  studied  a  paragraph — 
always  a  very  long  one — and  there  are  a  hundred 
and  forty-nine  of  them,  filling  four  volumes,  I 
closed  the  book  in  order  to  recover  a  little  from 
fatigue  and  from  a  kind  of  involuntary  terror 
caused  by  the  abundance  of  erudition.  Then, 
opening  the  Gospel — which  I  kissed  respectfully 
— I  read  the  texts  under  discussion,  to  see  if  by 
the  simple  aid  of  ordinary  literature,  and  without 
the  help  of  any  commentators,  I  could  not  succeed 
in  unravelling  the  difficulty.  With  the  exception 
of  three  or  four  passages,  I  have  never  required 


260 

\more  than  ten  minutes  to  dissipate  tlie  charm  of 
vain  knowledge,  and  to  smile  within  myself  at 
the  powerlessness  to  which  God  has  condemned 
error.  I  cannot,  gentlemen,  pass  in  review  before 
you  all  that  legion  of  texts  distorted  by  rational- 
ism ;  I  mil  limit  myself  to  two  examples  taken  at 
hazard. 

Saint  Luke,  having  to  narrate  the  birth  of 
Jesus  Christ  at  Bethlehem,  away  from  the  country 
of  his  parents,  writes  in  these  terms:  "And  it 
came  to  pass  that  in  those  days  there  went  out 
a  decree  from  Csesar  Augustus,  that  the  whole 
world  should  be  enrolled ;  this  enrolling  was  first 
made  by  Cyrinus  the  governor  of  Syria."  Upon 
this  Dr.  Strauss,  after  having  first  shown  very 
learnedly  that  the  enrolling  was  not  possible, 
opens  the  "  Judaical  Antiquities"  of  Flavins  Jose- 
phus,  and  shows  by  a  formal  text  that  Cyrinus 
did  not  govern  Syria  until  ten  years  after  the 
birth  of  Jesus  Christ.  Judge  what  a  triumph  this 
was  !  Now,  how  was  this  difiiculty  to  be  solved  ? 
You  think,  perhaps,  that  we  shall  have  to  change 
a  word  or  a  letter  ?  No ;  it  is  less  than  that. 
You  all  know  the  value  of  an  accent  in  the  Greek 
language;  change  then  an  accent,  and  see  what 
will  be  the  meaning  of  the  evangelist :  "  And  it 


261 


came  to  pass  that  in  those  days  there  went  out  a 
decree  from  Csesar  Augustus  that  the  whole  world 
should  be  enrolled ;  this  is  the  same  first  enrolling 
which  was  made  by  Cyrinus  the  governor  of 
Syria."  That  is  to  say,  that  the  order  having 
been  given  to  number  the  Roman  em23ire,  and  the 
execution  of  that  order  having  been  commenced, 
it  was  not  however  accomplished  until  ten  years 
after,  under  Cyrinus  the  governor  of  Syria.  And 
if  the  sacred  historian  makes  mention  of  the  name 
of  Cyrinus,  it  is  precisely  to  give  an  authentic 
character  to  his  declaration ;  for  had  he  been  con- 
tent with  saying :  "  There  went  out  a  decree  from 
Caesar  Augustus  that  the  whole  world  should  be 
enrolled,"  it  might  have  been  said  that  the  enroll- 
ing did  not  take  place  at  the  time  of  the  birth 
of  Christ.  He  anticipated  the  objection  then  by 
saying:  "this  is  the  same  first  enrolling  which 
was  made  by  Cyrinus  the  governor  of  Syria." 

Here  is  another  example :  It  is  said,  in  regard 
to  the  resurrection  of  our  Lord,  that  the  holy 
women  went  to  the  tomb,  according  to  St.  Mark, 
the  sun  being  then  risen,  and  according  to  St. 
John,  when  it  was  yet  dark.  Dr.  Strauss  notices 
this  contradiction  amongst  a  great  number  which 
he  pretends  to  discover  in  the  event  of  the  resur- 


262 


rection — and  he  does  not  fail  to  turn  tliem  to 
account.  But  how  shall  we  solve  this  terrible 
difficulty  ?  It  suffices  to  comprehend  that  when 
a  distance  is  to  be  reached  early  in  the  morning  it 
is  possible  to  start  before  sunrise,  and  to  arrive 
at  daybreak. 

I  assure  you,  gentlemen,  that,  save  a  very  few 
passages,  nothing  has  caused  me  any  greater 
trouble.  So  that  after  the  work  had  often  left 
my  hands  from  weariness,  my  hands  fell  from  me 
again  when  I  thought  that  this  was  learning,  Ger- 
man learning — that  learning  in  whose  name  they 
pompously  defy  Catholic  preachers  and  writers, 
saying  to  us :  You  speak  of  Christ  and  the  Gos- 
pel— you  cite  them;  but  you  are  behind  your 
age,  Germany  has  now  destroyed  Christ  and  the 
Gospel ;  she  has  examined  them  by  the  light  of 
criticism,  and  all  that  is  nothing  but  a  shadow,  a 
dream,  a  myth ! 

Let  us  leave  this  triumph  to  pride ;  and  with 
our  sounder  sense  let  us  seek  why  the  history  of 
Jesus  Christ  lends  itself  to  the  attacks  which  I 
have  just  pointed  out  to  you.  Had  Providence 
so  willed  it,  Jesus  Christ  would  have  had  but  one 
single  historian,  conducting  from  one  end  to  the 
other  the  thread  of  his  life  with  a  chronological 


263 


clearness  which  would  have  given  to  each  part 
its  true  place,  and  have  raised  the  whole  above 
any  possible  discussion.  But  Providence  did  not 
so  will  it.  Providence  desired  that  the  Gospel 
should  be  the  work  of  several  men  differing  in 
age,  in  genius,  in  style,  and  in  judgment,  and  not 
one  of  whom  should  collect  under  his  pen  all  the 
materials  of  the  life  of  Christ,  but  only  simple 
fragments,  the  very  choice  of  which  was  arbi- 
trary. The  idea  of  God  in  this  was  to  make  of 
the  biography  of  his  Son  a  miracle  of  intimate 
truth  which  the  most  vulgar  eye  might  discern, 
and  which  w^as  to  be  found  in  no  other  life  of 
any  man  whatever.  Indeed,  from  the  first  glance, 
the  multiplicity  of  the  Gospels  is  striking,  not 
only  from  the  title-page,  which  bears  different 
names,  but  from  the  reflection  of  their  personal 
nature  in  each  of  the  Gospels.  We  see  and  feel 
that  St.  Matthew,  St.  Mark,  St.  Luke,  St.  John, 
are  different  souls,  and  that  each  traces  in  his 
own  manner  the  likeness  of  his  beloved  Master, 
without  taking  the  least  account  of  what  his 
neighbor  is  doing,  or  even  of  what  the  continuity 
of  chronology  requires.  Thence  an  arbitrary 
choice  of  fragments,  a  default  of  connection,  ap- 
parent contradictions,  details  omitted  by  one  and 


264 


related  by  another,  a  multitude  of  varieties  of 
which  men  render  no  account  to  themselves. 
This  is  true.  iVnd  yet  in  these  four  evangelists 
there  is  the  -same  portraiture  of  Christ,  the  same 
sublimity,  the  same  tenderness,  the  same  force, 
the  same  language,  the  same  accent,  the  same 
supreme  singularity  of  physiognomy.  Open  St. 
Matthew,  the  publican,  or  St.  John,  the  young 
man,  chaste  and  contemplative ;  choose  whatever 
passage  you  will  in  the  one  or  in  the  other,  differ- 
ent alike  in  matter  and  expression,  and  speak  it 
before  a  thousand  men  assembled  together,  all 
will  raise  their  heads ;  they  recognize  Jesus  Christ. 
And  the  more  the  exterior  disagreement  of  the 
Gospels  is  shown,  the  more  that  intimate  agree- 
ment whence  the  moral  unity  of  Christ  springs 
A\'ill  become  a  proof  of  their  fidelity.  If  they 
unanimously  represent  so  well  the  inimitable  fea- 
tures of  Christ,  it  is  because  he  was  before  their 
eyes ;  they  saw  him  such  as  he  was  and  such  as 
they  were  not  able  to  forget  him.  They  saw  him 
with  their  senses,  with  their  hearts,  with  the  ex- 
actitude of  a  love  which  was  to  give  its  blood; 
they  are  at  the  same  time  witnesses,  painters,  and 
martyrs.  That  sitting  of  God  before  man  has 
been  witnessed  only  once,  and  this  is  why  there 


265 


is  but  one  Gospel,  althougli  there  were  four  evan- 
gelists. 

And  what  soul  is  insensible  to  this  ?  What 
soul  will  not  one  day  forget  science  at  the  feet  of 
Jesus  Christ,  represented  by  his  apostles?  To 
close  this  subject,  listen  to  the  words  of  a  French- 
man, which  will  console  you  for  the  frenzies  of 
that  learning  which  the  Gospel  has  not  disarmed. 
They  are  those  of  a  man  whose  judgment  upon 
Jesus  Christ  I  have  already  cited  to  you,  and  they 
express  in  clear  and  forcible  language  the  impres- 
sion which  the  reading  of  the  Gospel  leaves  in 
the  mind  of  the  profane  as  well  as  in  that  of  the 
Christian :  "  Shall  we  say  that  the  Gospel  history 
is  a  pure  invention  ?  My  friend,  men  do  not 
invent  in  this  way,  and  the  acts  of  Socrates, 
which  no  one  doubts,  are  less  fully  proved  than 
those  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  truth,  it  is  to  push 
aside  the  difficulty  without  destroying  it  ;  it 
would  be  much  more  inconceivable  that  several 
men  too-ether  should  have  fabricated  that  book 
than  that  only  one  should  have  furnished  the 
subjects  of  it.  The  Jewish  authors  would  never 
have  acquired  that  tone  or  that  morality;  and 
the  Gospel  possesses  characters  of  truth  so  great, 
so  striking,  so  perfectly  inimitable,  that  the  in- 
12 


266 


ventor  of  it  would  be  more  marvellous  tlian  the 
hero ! " 

This  is  French  language  and  French  genius. 
And  therefore  you  should  not  be  surprised  at 
returning  to  Christ  after  having  quitted  him 
The  lucidity  of  our  national  intelligence  sustains 
within  you  the  light  of  grace,  and  causes  you  like 
giants  to  cross  those  thorny  abysses  of  science,  but 
of  a  science  which  braves  the  soul.  Be  faithful 
to  this  double  gift  which  bears  you  towards  God  ; 
judge  of  the  power  of  Jesus  Christ  by  the  efforts, 
so  contradictory  and  so  vain,  of  his  adversaries ; 
and  permit  me  to  recall  to  you  in  terminating  this 
discourse  a  celebrated  trait  which  paints  that 
power,  and  the  eloquent  prophecy  which  fifteen 
centuries  have  confirmed. 

When  the  Emperor  Julian  attacked  Christianity 
by  that  stratagem  of  war  and  violence  which  bears 
his  name,  and,  absent  from  the  empire,  had  gone 
to  seek  in  battles  the  consecration  of  a  power  and 
popularity  which  he  thought  would  achieve  the 
ruin  of  Jesus  Christ,  one  of  his  familiars,  the  rhe- 
tor Libanius,  on  meeting  a  Christian,  asked  him 
derisively  and  with  all  the  insolence  of  assured 
success,  what  the  Galilean  was  doing  ;  the  Chris 
tian  answered:   He   is   making   a   coffin.     Some 


267 


time  afterwards  Libanius  pronounced  tlie  funeral 
oration  of  Julian  over  his  mutilated  body  and  his 
vanished  power.  What  the  Galilean  was  then 
doing,  gentlemen,  he  does  always,  whatever  may 
be  the  arm  and  the  pride  men  may  oppose  to  his 
cross.  It  would  require  much  time  to  deduce 
all  the  famous  examples  of  this  ;  but  we  possess 
some  which  touch  us  closely,  and  by  which  Jesus 
Christ,  at  the  extremity  of  ages,  has  confirmed  to 
us  the  nothingness  of  his  enemies.  Thus,  when 
Voltaire  rubbed  his  hands  with  joy,  towards  the 
close  of  his  life,  saying  to  his  followers :  "  In 
twenty  years,  God  will  see  fine  sport  ;"  the  Gali- 
lean prepared  a  cofiin  :  it  was  that  of  the  French 
monarchy.  Thus,  when  a  power  of  another  order, 
but  sprung,  in  some  degi'ee,  from  the  same,  held 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff  in  a  captivity  which  threat- 
ened the  fall  at  least  of  the  temporal  power  of 
the  vicar  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Galilean  prepared  a 
coffin :  it  was  that  of  St.  Helena.  And  now,  on 
seeing  Gennany  agitated  by  the  convulsions  of 
unregulated  science,  of  which  you  have  just  wit- 
nessed so  lamentable  a  production,  we  may  say 
with  as  much  certainty  as  hope :  The  Galilean 
prepares  a  coffin,  and  it  is  that  of  rationalism. 
And  you  all,  sons  of  this  age,  ill-instructed  by  the 


268 


miseries  of  past  errors,  and  who  seek  out  of  Jesus 
Clirist  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life,  the  Gali- 
lean prepares  a  coffin  for  you ;  and  it  is  that  of 
all  your  most  cherished  conceptions.  And  so  will 
it  ever  be,  the  Galilean  ever  working  but  two 
things,  living  of  himself,  or  either  by  blood,  ob- 
livion, or  shame,  entombing  all  that  is  not  of  him. 


THE  EFFORTS  OF  RATIONALISM  TO  EXPLAIN 
THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


My  Loed — Gentlemen, 

Rationalism  has  tlien  made  but  vain  efforts  to 
destroy  and  to  pervert  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Jesus  Christ  is  not  dethroned ;  the  power  of  his- 
tory protects  and  upholds  him  against  all  these 
attacks.  Therefore  rationalism  has  been  forced 
to  attempt  a  last  and  supreme  effort  to  explain  at 
least  that  life  which  it  was  unable  either  to  de- 
stroy or  to  dishonor.  We  Catholics  explain  the 
life  of  Christ,  we  explain  the  success  he  has 
obtained — the  greatest  of  all  success,  that  of  pro- 
ducing in  minds  the  rational  certainty  of  faith ; 
in  the  soul,  holiness  by  humility,  chastity,  and 
charity ;  in  the  world  a  spiritual  community,  one, 
universal,  and  perpetual — we  explain  it  by  that 
single  expression  :  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God. 
But  if  it  be  not  so  exj)lained ;  if  it  be  supposed 
that  Christ  is  but  a  man,  it  is  nevertheless  neces 
sary  to  give  a  reason  for  that  greatest  success 
ever  obtained,  which  is  his  own.     Now,  as  after 


270 


the  power  of  God  there  remains  only  the  power 
of  man,  if  Jesus  Christ  did  not  act  by  the  power 
of  God,  he  acted  by  the  power  of  man.  But  tho 
j)ower  of  man  in  its  results  being  manifestly 
inferior  to  that  which  Jesus  Christ  has  accom- 
plished, it  follows  that  we  must  seek  in  man  a 
certain  root  of  power  which,  in  rare  cases,  may 
suddenly  appear  and  explain  what  Christ  was  and 
what  he  has  accomplished.  That  is  to  say,  that 
Jesus  Christ,  not  being  the  Son  of  God,  nor,  as  he 
himself  said,  the  Son  of  man,  he  is  the  Son  of 
mankind,  the  illustrious  production  of  that  silent 
and  progressive  action  which  is  the  life  of  man- 
kind, and  which,  on  certain  solemn  occasions, 
buds  forth,  so  to  say,  blossoms,  produces  an  extra- 
ordinary being,  and  surrounds  him  with  a  halo 
which  all  who  come  after  him  will  confirm,  up  to 
the  time  when  mankind,  ever  pregnant  with  the 
future,  feels  that  it  is  imperfectly  represented  by 
the  heroic  and  sovereign  being  it  has  produced, 
and  at  length  salutes  him  with  a  last  mark  of 
respect,  brings  him  down  to  the  level  of  earthly 
things,  and  says  to  him :  Adieu. 

I  shall  devote  our  last  conference  of  this  yeai 
to  the  refutation  of  this  system.  This  done,  all 
that  belongs  to  the  constitution  and  character, 


271 


alike  of  the  Cliurcli  and  of  Christ,  having  been 
manifested  to  you  in  our  teaching,  it  will  only 
remain  for  us  to  enter  upon  the  doctrine  itself  of 
the  Church  and  of  Christ,  in  order  to  present  it 
to  you  in  all  the  fulness  of  its  harmony;  after 
which  we  shall  have  but  to  repose,  you,  gentle- 
men, from  your  attention,  and  I  from  the  happi- 
ness of  having  taught  you  so  long. 

Three  things  have  to  be  explained  in  the  life 
and  success  of  Jesus  Christ :  his  doctrine  which 
appears  to  surpass  all  others,  the  faith  which  the 
world  has  given  to  that  doctrine,  and,  thirdly,  the 
union  of  that  doctrine  and  faith  in  a  body  hierar- 
chically constituted,  which  is  the  Church.  This 
triple  phenomenon,  it  is  said,  is  easily  explained 
by  the  general  state  of  doctrines,  minds,  and 
nations,  at  the  time  when  Jesus  Christ  appeared. 
First,  by  the  general  state  of  doctrines.  That  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  ordinarily  considered  to  be  a  new 
doctrine,  unknown,  creative,  as  something  which 
had  neither  root  nor  model  in  the  past ;  this,  as 
rationalism  says,  is  a  very  palpable  error.  The 
human  race  has  never  been  without  doctrine ;  it 
is  a  necessary  part  of  its  life.  That  some  simple- 
ton satisfied  in  the  debauch  of  pride  and  of  the 
senses  may  pass  through  the  world  without  troub- 


272 


ling  liiinself  about  doctrine,  as  a  grain  of  dust 
carried  along  by  the  unstable  wind  passes  and 
disappears,  no  one  will  deny.  Bat  mankind  lias 
other  desires  and  other  destinies.  Mankind  re- 
quires to  know,  to  seek,  to  render  account  to 
itself  of  itself  and  of  the  universe,  to  possess  a 
faith ;  and  never,  in  reality,  has  it  lived  without 
that  spiritual  element.  As  men  dig  the  earth 
that  bears  them,  as  they  scan  the  sky  that  covers 
them,  so  they  unceasingly  labor  upon  the  fertile 
soil  of  doctrines,  in  order  to  draw  from  them  an 
aliment  which  they  deem  divine.  This  working 
is  not  less  active  in  itself  than  that  which  is 
external  and  scientific,  and  they  form  together  a 
tissue  of  unwearied  action.  Now  there  were 
three  principal  theatres  of  this  action  before 
Jesus  Christ,  the  East,  the  West,  and  Judsea, 
which  was  the  connecting  link  between  the  two 
others. 

The  East  preserved  doctrine  under  this  form : 
that  man  had  fallen,  that  he  needed  an  expiation 
to  return  to  a  better  condition — an  expiation 
which,  from  cycle  to  cycle,  favored  mysterious  in- 
carnations of  God.  The  eastern  incarnation,  its 
expiation,  its  metempsychosis  or  trial,  nothing  is 
more  famous  than  these  in  the  history  of  doc- 


273 


triiies ;  and  it  will  suffice  to  place  these  terms  be- 
fore your  minds  for  you  to  perceive  in  a  single 
moment,  on  penetrating  to  the  heart  of  Judaea, 
this  order  of  ideas  still  existing.  In  the  West,  a 
work  of  another  nature  had  been  accomplished. 
Under  the  reign  of  free  discussion,  it  more  eifect- 
ually  sti'ipped  itself  of  j)ast  myths ;  it  sought  wis- 
dom, founded  less  upon  tradition  than  upon  the 
decisions  of  pure  reason ;  and  Plato  was  the  most 
memorable  instrument  of  these  explorations  of 
the  human  mind.  He  comprehended  that  God 
was  in  communication  with  man,  not  only  by 
corrupted  or  lost  traditions,  but  by  the  perpetual 
effusion  of  his  Verb  or  Word  within  us,  the  Di- 
vine Word,  the  eternal  Logos^  absolute  reason — 
of  which  our  reason  and  our  word  are  the  trans- 
parent image,  so  that  in  contemplating  his  own 
ideas,  man  beheld,  as  in  a  mirror,  the  very  ideas 
that  are  in  God,  and  form  there  the  first  Word. 
And  this  theory  of  the  manifestation  of  God  by 
his  Word,  of  which  the  word  of  man  is  but  the 
diminutive  and  the  reflection,  had  become  the 
most  elevated  point  of  the  doctrines  of  Greece 
and  of  the  West.  The  Jewish  people,  on  their 
part,  had  maintained,  with  extraordinary  fidelity, 
the  dogma  of  the  unity  of  God,  that  of  the  creation, 
12* 


274 


and  in  addition  a  certain  hope  of  the  fundamental 
unity  of  man,  which  should  eventually  be  restored 
as  it  existed  in  the  original  family. 

This  was  evidently  the  general  state  of  doctrines 
at  the  time  of  Christ,  and  these  doctrines,  long 
isolated,  each    in  its   place,  had    at  length  met 
together  after  the  conquests  of  Alexander  and 
the  invasions  of  Rome  reaching  to  Asia.      The 
East,  the  West,  Judaea,  and  with  them  the  Brah- 
mins, the  propliets,  the  sibyls,  the   sages,  all  the 
documents,  and  all  the  efforts  of  the  past  had,  as 
it  were,  met  together  by  common   accord  before 
the  throne    of  Augustus,  on   the   day  when  he 
closed  upon  the  world  the  prophetic  gates  of  the 
temple  of  war.      At  that  moment  Jesus  Christ 
was  born.     Endowed  witli  a  genius  answering  to 
the  marvellous  circumstances  of  his  age,  he  saw 
witli  a  sure  glance  the  confluence  of  doctrines ; 
in  that  confluence  he  unravelled  more  than  one 
fortuitous  junction,  he  discovered  there  the  germs 
of  deeply-seated   unity,   and   imagined   that   by 
giving  satisfaction  to  all,  by  engrafting  the  East 
upon  tlie  West,  the  West  and  the  East  upon  the 
Hebraic   trunk,  lie    should   attain  to   a  doctrine 
wliicli  would  at  least  captivate  a  great  multitude 
of  minds  in  the  divers  parts  of  the  world.     He 


•J  7  J 

laid  down  as  a  foundation  the  eastern  dogma  of 
the  fall,  and  declared  that  he  himself,  the  last  in^ 
carnation,  superior  to  all  that  had  preceded  him, 
had  come  definitively  to  expiate  the  fault  of  the 
human  race,  and  to  restore  to  men  with  their 
native  purity  all  their  birthrights.  Next,  as  the 
eastern  incarnation  was  dishonored  by  too  many 
fabulous  elements,  he  based  the  idea  of  his  own 
incarnation  upon  that  Word  of  Plato,  who  had 
detached  the  communication  between  God  and 
man  from  the  traditional  myth,  in  order  to  reduce 
it  to  a  permanent  communication  of  ideas  in  the 
very  seat  of  the  understanding.  He  declared 
that  he  was  the  Word  of  God,  the  reason  of  God, 
the  one  who,  by  his  nature,  enlightened  every 
man  coming  into  the  world ;  and  who,  by  the 
effective  presence  of  his  personality,  by  the  exte- 
rior lights  of  his  teaching,  brought  to  the  mind  a 
more  complete  vision  of  truth.  The  Divine  Word 
was  thenceforth  in  presence  of  the  human  word ; 
the  image  had  but  to  look  upon  the  model,  the 
consequence  had  but  to  consult  the  principle,  and 
from  that  confronting  of  within  to  without,  of 
light  to  light,  the  supreme  enlightenment  of  the 
human  race  would  come.  Plato  thus  became 
allied  to  the  Brahmins  of  India,  the  West  to  the 


276 


East ;  and,  in  fine,  to  give  satisfaction  to  the  He- 
braic ideas,  Jesus  Christ  not  only  proclaimed  him- 
self the  Messiah,  he  also  accepted  the  dogmas  of 
the  unity  of  God  and  of  the  creation,  which  were 
inscribed  in  the  first  pages  of  the  Bible,  and 
which  were  the  special  patrimony  of  the  Hebrew 
people. 

Such  was,  gentlemen,  according  to  rationalism, 
the  theme  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  mode  of  the  forma- 
tion of  his  doctrine,  and  the  efficient  cause  of  his 
doctrinal  success.  He  was  not  creator,  but  elec- 
tric ;  his  success  was  not  a  success  of  creation,  but 
of  fusion.  Before  seeking  to  discover  how  far 
this  is  confirmed  by  comparing  the  Christian  doc- 
trines with  the  doctrines  of  antiquity,  let  us  first 
see  how  Jesus  Christ  declared  himself  Did  he 
declare  himself  as  a  creator  ?  Did  he  say :  I  am 
the  inventor  of  truth  ?  No,  gentlemen,  he  said 
"  I  am  the  truth."  *  He  said  :  "  I  am  not  come  to 
destroy  the  law,  but  to  fulfil  it ;  '■  '  which  means : 
I  am  the  truth  of  all  times  and  places ;  I  am  that 
truth  which  was  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father; 
which  appeared  to  the  first  man  in  the  innocence 
of  the  teri'estrial  paradise  ;  which  the  patriarchs, 
his   successors,  knew;    which  Noah  on   quitting 

>  St.  John  xiv.  6.  »  St.  Matthew  v.  17. 


277 


the  ark  received  and  promulgated  afresh ;  wMcli 
Abraham,  in  the  fields  of  Chaldsea  and  Syria,  saw 
and  heard  ;  which  Moses,  at  the  foot  of  Sinai,  re- 
ceived, graven  by  the  hand  of  God.  I  am  that 
truth  which  is  the  first  and  the  last,  and  which 
no  man  has  ever  been  able  totally  to  set  aside. 
Behold,  gentlemen,  what  Jesus  Christ  said  of  him- 
self, and  what  the  Church  still  says  of  him  daily. 
He  did  not  seek,  nor  do  we  seek  for  him  a  suc- 
cess of  creation;  we  have  never  pretended  that 
Christianity  commenced  with  the  appearance  of 
Christ  under  Augustus.  To  have  given  it  a  char- 
acter of  novelty  would  have  been  to  ruin  Chris- 
tianity. From  the  first  day  of  the  world,  from 
the  first  word  of  God,  from  the  first  Divine  ray 
which  shone  in  our  soul,  it  was  Christ  who  acted, 
who  spake,  and  who  revealed  himself;  and  that 
revelation  spread  over  the  whole  earth  with  the 
dispersion  of  the  primordial  branches  of  the  hu- 
man race. 

However,  by  the  side  of  this  phenomenon  of 
the  primitive  and  universal  propagation  of  Chris- 
tianity, we  must  remark  that  there  grew  up  an- 
other of  a  very  different  character.  I  mean  the 
progressive  adulteration  and  corruption  of  Chris- 
tianity by  forgetfulness,  reasoning,  and  unbelief. 


278 


So  tliat  Jesus  Christ,  althougli  not  new,  brought 
into  the  world  something  which  the  world  no 
longer  knew  save  by  ill-defined  hopes  and  disfig- 
ured recollections.  And,  to  begin  by  the  East; 
it  is  true,  the  East  had  preserved  the  idea  of  the 
fall,  of  expiation,  of  the  divine  intervention  for  the 
restoration  of  man — no  one  will  contest  it ;  but 
the  East  had  stifled  that  idea  between  two  ab 
surdities,  namely,  pantheism  and  metempsychosis 
the  one  and  the  other  affirming  that  the  purifica 
tion  of  man  had  for  object  and  for  effect  the  re 
turn  of  man  to  the  very  substance  of  the  Divin 
ity,  from  whence  he  had  sprung,  and  that  after 
cycles  of  trials,  more  or  less  prolonged,  the  final 
state  of  mankind  would  be  that  of  the  eternal  and 
absolute  repose  of  complete  deification.  Now,  did 
Jesus  Christ  admit  this  doctrine  ?  Did  he  com- 
promise with  the  East  in  regard  to  pantheism  or 
metempsychosis  ?  No,  he  taught  the  very  op- 
posite ;  he  said  to  us :  You  are  but  nothingness 
which  has  responded  to  the  creating  power  of 
God ;  and  your  destiny,  although  great,  is  not  to 
attain  to  God  by  confounding  your  substance 
with  him,  but  by  simple  vision.  You  will  one 
day  see  him,  if  you  have  believed  in  him ;  you 
will  possess  him  present,  if  you  have  loved  him 


279 


absent ;  but  your  nature  and  your  personality 
will  subsist  before  bini.  Pantheism  bears  you 
alike  too  liigb  and  too  low — too  liigb  in  promis- 
ing you  that  you  are  one  in  substance  with  God  ; 
too  low  in  taking  from  you  your  proper  nature 
and  your  principle  of  distinction.  Your  place  and 
truth  are  not  there.  God  and  man  are  forever 
two  ;  two  in  their  essence ;  two  in  their  person- 
ality ;  two  in  their  love,  for  God  made  man  from 
love ;  and  if  man  correspond  to  that  love  which 
sought  him  the  first,  that  same  love  will  eternally 
I'eward  him.  If,  on  the  contrary,  man  be  unfaith- 
ful and  ungrateful,  that  love  will  reject  him  eter- 
nally. 

I  ask  you,  gentlemen,  was  this  the  eastern  dog- 
ma, or  was  it  not  rather  its  destruction  ? 

And  as  to  the  West,  they  speak  of  Plato.  But, 
in  the  first  place,  was  Plato  the  whole  West? 
Did  he  resume  the  West  in  himself?  Did  not 
Aristotle,  Epicurus,  Zeno,  Pyrrho,  exist  by  the 
same  title,  and  did  not  their  doctrines  share  with 
those  of  the  Academy  the  empire  of  minds  ? 
You  say  that  Plato  was  the  highest  expression 
of  western  msdom ;  let  us  not  contest  it,  and  in 
seeing  what  he  thought,  let  us  see  what  Jesus 
Christ  owed  to  him.     In  the  metaphysical  order. 


280 


Plato  believed  in  the  eternity  of  matter  and  of 
chaos,  placing  the  world  in  presence  of  God  as  a 
substance  inferior,  but  parallel  and  uncreated ; 
in  the  moral  order,  he  denied  the  existence  of 
free-will,  and  affirmed  in  proper  terms  that  no 
one  was  voluntarily  bad,  because  the  principle  of 
all  evil  is  an  indeliberate  error  of  the  mind. 
Dualism  and  fatalism,  such  is  that  Plato  so  much 
admired — whom  I  have  lauded  myself,  whom  I 
shall  still  jDraise,  a  man  admirable  indeed,  who, 
being  plunged  like  all  the  others  in  the  faint 
and  almost  extinguished  light  of  antiquity,  caught 
here  and  there  glimpses  of  the  shadow  of  truth, 
and  made  plaintive  cries  to  it,  as  if  he  had  be- 
held it ;  but  being  unable  to  seize  it,  had  thrown 
again  over  his  desires  and  his  regrets  that  royal 
vestment  which  has  become  the  charm  of  his 
thoughts,  the  beauty  of  his  discourse,  and  the 
majesty  of  his  renown.  No  sage  ever  equalled 
him  in  the  invocation  of  truth,  none  foresaw  its 
future  more  clearly,  none  ever  tinged  the  twi- 
light of  error  with  a  halo  more  gorgeous  or  bet- 
ter formed  to  solace  the  soul  for  weddins:  but 
a  dream.  But  to  make  him  an  ancestor  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  the  tie  by  which  the  Gospel  attached 
the  West  to  itself,  is  to  expect  too  much  from  his 


281 


glory.  Jesus  Christ  denied  tlie  Platonic  dualism 
and  fatalism,  as  lie  also  denied  the  pantheism  and 
metempsychosis  of  India;  and  if  he  called  him- 
self the  Word,  the  Son  of  God,  that  expression 
sprang  from  a  mystery  which,  to  Plato,  was  un- 
known!— the  mystery  of  a  triple  personality  in 
the  substance,  one  and  indivisible,  of  God. 

The  Jews,  in  their  turn,  although  possessors  of 
primitive  Christianity  and  the  expectation  of  the 
Messiah,  had  corrupted  this  deposit  in  their  ideas, 
by  making  of  Christian  truth — which  is  the  pat- 
rimony  of  all — their  own  special  heritage,  by  sub- 
stituting the  idea  of  the  law  for  the  idea  of  faith. 
Moses  for  Christ,  the  personal  for  the  universal. 
This  is  what  St.  Paul  reproaches  them  with  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  where  he  takes  so  much 
pains  to  explain  to  them  the  inferiority  of  the  law 
to  faith ;  how  Christ  was  the  principle  of  salva- 
tion from  the  time  of  Abraham,  and  how  the 
works  of  the  law,  understood  and  performed  with- 
out Jesus  Christ,  were  a  cause  of  death.  The 
Jews  rebelled  against  that  forcible  teaching ;  al- 
ready steeped  in  the  liberating  blood,  and  even 
in  communion  with  it,  they  persisted  in  venerating 
the  idol  which  raised  their  national  pride  to  the 
rank  of  a  duty  and  a  virtue,  and  persuaded  them- 


282 


selves  that  Judaism  was  to  subjugate  tlie  uni- 
verse. In  tlie  Cliristian  sense,  this  was  true ;  in 
^he  sense  in  wliicli  they  held  it,  it  was  false. 
Jesus  Christ  had  then  to  combat  Judaea  as  well 
as  the  East  and  the  West.  And  if  you  w^ould 
see  yet  more  clearly  that  Christian  doctrine  was 
not  a  success  of  fusion,  but  a  success  of  contradic- 
tion— of  contradiction  to  the  East,  to  the  West,  to 
the  Hebrew  people — you  have  but  to  study  pan- 
theism as  the  East  has  preserved  it,  Judaism  as 
the  remnant  of  Israel  still  understands  it,  and  Pla- 
tonism  as  it  has  been  resuscitated  before  our  eyes. 
Pantheism  lives  in  India.  India  is  now,  as  in 
})ast  times,  its  land  of  predilection,  it  lives  there 
under  the  same  forms  and  in  the  same  doctrines 
as  in  the  time  of  Jesus  Christ.  Now,  no  coun- 
try, no  system,  has  offered  more  resistance  to  the 
Christian  apostolate.  For  three  centuries  the 
great  Indian  peninsula  has  been  open  to  us 
many  European  nations  have  together  and  sue 
cessively  governed  it.  England  is  now  its  mis 
tress ;  we  hold  it  by  our  missionaries  as  by  our 
arms  under  the  grasp  of  our  domination,  and  no 
where,  not  even  in  that  China  which  is  closed  to 
us,  has  the  action  of  Jesus  Christ  been  less  re- 
warded with  success.     Brahminism  has  resisted 


283 


example  as  well  as  discussion;  it  has  been  like 
granite  against  trutli,  like  a  thing  incompatible 
with  another  thing,  and  which  rejects  it  so  much 
the  more  as  it  approaches  nearer.  Many  reasons 
have  been  given  for  this,  such  as  the  rule  of  caste, 
and  the  aversion  resulting  therefrom  for  our  prin- 
cij)les  of  equality.  It  may  be  also  that  on  account 
of  the  many  traditions  it  has  preserved  on  the  fall 
and  reparation,  Brahminism  has  been  less  sensible 
to  the  mystery  of  redemption  by  the  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ,  as  we  see  men  in  whom  the  posses- 
sion of  a  certain  measure  of  truth  serves  as  an  ob- 
stacle to  the  acquisition  of  the  rest.  The  honest 
man  is  often  in  this  state,  gentlemen,  when  he  has 
the  misfortune  not  to  be  a  Christian ;  his  probity 
keeps  him  from  God,  whilst  the  unworthy  sinner, 
looking  upon  himself,  sees  nothing  within  that 
raises  an  illusion  for  him.  This  is  why  Jesus 
Christ  said :  "  Those  women  whom  you  call  lost 
will  go  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  before  you."  ' 
They  are,  in  fact,  nearer  to  good  by  being  far  from 
it ;  they  touch  the  feet  of  Jesus  Christ  by  humil- 
iation; and  when  we  are  at  the  feet  of  Jesus 
Christ  we  are  very  near  to  his  heart.  So  perhaps 
is  it  with  nations  that  have  lost  all  truth  ;  they 

>  St.  Matt.  xxi.  31. 


284 


feel  tlie  need  of  regaining  it,  whilst  those  who 
still  preserve  vestiges  of  truth,  grow  proud  vrith 
the  little  they  have,  scorning  to  desire  and  seek 
that  which  they  have  not.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
Indian  pantheism  has  not  changed;  it  is  now 
what  it  was  in  the  Augustan  age ;  and  whatever 
may  have  been  the  cause  of  its  insensibility  to- 
wards Jesus  Christ,  it  no  less  proves  to  us  how 
chimerical  is  the  idea  of  that  fusion  of  doctrines 
by  which  it  is  desired  to  explain  the  formation 
of  the  Christian  dogma. 

The  spectacle  of  Judaism  as  it  lives  before  us 
leads  us  to  the  same  conclusion.  And  as  to  Pla- 
tonism,  God  has  permitted  it  to  resuscitate  in  our 
time,  so  that  on  witnessing  it  in  action  we  may  be 
able  to  judge  of  its  doctrinal  sympathy  for  Jesus 
Christ.  You  all  know  to  what  school  I  allude ; 
you  know  how  that  school  has  restored  Platonic 
dualism  to  honor,  by  rejecting  from  its  philosophy 
the  fundamental  dogma  of  the  creation  of  the 
world  by  God,  and  you  know  also  how  it  treats 
the  rest  of  Christianity.  In  contemporary  litera- 
ture we  have  no  more  avowed  enemies  than  the 
friends  of  Plato.  Whether  then  we  regard  pan- 
theism, Judaism,  or  Platonism — all  three  subsist- 
ing before  us  as  in  the  time  of  Jesus  Christ — it  is 


285 


easy  for  us  to  judge  tliat  Christianity  was  not  the 
result  of  a  fusion  between  the  doctrines  of  the  an- 
cient world,  but  a  work  of  renovation  and  of  con- 
tradiction. The  Gospel  has  renewed  all,  because 
all  had  been  forgotten  ;  it  has  contradicted  all, 
because  all  had  been  denied  or  disfigured ;  it  has 
had  all  doctrines  for  adversaries,  because  it  has 
disavowed  and  rejected  all.  And  as  it  was  afore- 
time, so  it  is  now.  The  dogmatic  intolerance  of 
which  it  is  accused  defines  its  nature  and  proves 
its  originality. 

But  the  success  of  Jesus  Christ  was  not  only 
realized  in  the  powerful  and  aboriginal  formation 
of  his  doctrine ;  it  was  also  a  success  of  faith.  A 
doctrine  is  as  nothing  as  long  as  it  has  not  taken 
possession  of  minds  by  faith,  which  gives  it  life 
and  action.  How  did  the  ancient  world  believe 
in  Jesus  Christ  ?  How  did  the  men  of  the  East 
and  the  West,  the  learned  or  the  unlearned,  and, 
in  fine,  the  great  nations,  abdicate  the  teaching 
they  had  received  from  the  past,  in  order  to  be- 
come the  disciples  of  a  Jew  crucified  in  Jerusalem? 
Rationalism  explains  it  thus:  At  the  epoch  of 
Augustus  the  human  mind  was  weary.  On  the 
one  hand,  it  no  longer  accepted  idolatiy,  which 
was  the  popular  form  of  ancient  doctrines :  and 


286 


on  tlie  otlier,  philosopliy  liaving  founded  nothing, 
a  double  lassitude  of  tlie  intelligence  ensued — 
lassitude  as  to  public  religion,  and  lassitude  as  to 
tlie  powerless  eiforts  of  philosoj^liy.  Men  wan- 
dered»in  the  void  and  at  hazard,  invoking  a  new 
faith.  Jesus  Christ  came  ;  he  inaugurated  before 
the  world,  fatigued  and  ready  to  receive  it,  an 
affirmation  which  did  but  slight  violence  to  gen- 
eral opinion ;  he  was  listened  to,  men  wanted  to 
believe,  and  they  believed  in  him. 

For  my  part,  gentlemen,  I  have  no  belief  in  this 
genesis  of  the  Christian  faith.  When  an  epoch 
has  lost  faith  it  is  not  so  easy  to  give  it  back 
again,  and  we  have  some  proof  of  this  before  our 
eyes.  Rationalism,  in  such  times,  invades  all 
hearts,  and  rationalism  is  never  convinced  of  its 
impotency,  or  weary  of  itself  If  four  or  five  cen- 
turies of  useless  efforts  before  Jesus  Christ  had 
discouraged  it,  it  should  now,  when  it  counts 
eighteen  centuries  more  of  vain  endeavors,  be  on 
the  eve  of  abdicating  its  pretensions.  Does  it,  I 
ask  you,  even  dream  of  so  doing  ?  Do  we  not  see 
it  more  affirmative,  more  arrogant,  more  sure  of 
itself  than  ever  ?  So  will  it  be  a  thousand  years 
hence.  A  thousand  years  hence  our  posterity 
will  see  masters  who  will  ascend  the  rostrum  and 


287 


say  to  them  with  imperturbable  self-possession : 
Gentlemen,  we  are  abont  to  create  philosophy,  or 
at  least,  if  we  have  not  that  honor,  we  touch  the 
fortunate  ej)och  Avhich  will  place  the  crowning 
stone  upon  its  edifice.  Such  is  rationalism.  No 
experience  has  wearied  or  will  ever  weary  it  of 
itself;  it  rises  anew  from  its  ashes,  or  rather,  it 
neither  lives  nor  dies,  but  is  a  credulous  infant 
who  aspires  to  maturity  without  ever  once  leav- 
ing its  cradle.  Let  us  not  wonder  thereat;  it 
takes  its  starting-point  in  a  principle  which  ex- 
cludes life,  because  it  excludes  faith ;  and  yet 
faith  will  destroy  it.  It  has  but  the  choice  of 
death  ;  and  it  naturally  prefers  that  which  leaves 
to  it  the  appearance  of  being  something,  were  it 
but  a  doubt  and  a  negation.  Eationalism  is  in- 
corrigible because  to  correct  itself  it  must  cease 
to  exist. 

To  admit  then  that  the  general  state  of  minds, 
in  the  Augustan  age,  was  a  state  of  void  and 
lassitude,  is  by  no  means  to  explain  the  propa- 
gation of  the  Christian  faith  then  accomplished 
with  so  much  power  and  rapidity.  But  I  do  not 
admit  that  such  was,  under  Augustus,  the  general 
state  of  minds.  Doubtless  idolatry  had  become 
an  object  of  contempt  to  a  great  number  of  en- 


288 


lightened  men,  but  tlie  people  did  not  despise  it. 
The  popular  mind  sympathized  with  idolatry, 
which  more  than  ever  included  all  the  recollec- 
tions which  the  multitude  adored  and  all  the 
spectacles  they  needed.  The  political  spirit 
favored  that  tendency ;  it  supported  idolatry  as  a 
State  necessity.  And  when  Jesus  Christ  came  to 
ask  from  Rome  that  right  of  citizenship  which 
she  had  refused  to  none  of  the  gods  she  had  van- 
quished, it  was  easy  to  see  what  was  the  state  of 
the  popular  and  political  spirit  upon  this  head. 
Do  we  not  know  what  answer  she  gave  to  him  ? 
Do  we  not  know  who  replied  to  the  martyrs  of 
Christ,  in  the  amphitheatres,  by  insults  and  cries 
of  death  ?  Whilst  the  emperors  and  the  procon- 
suls gave  sentence  against  them  in  the  name  of 
the  political  spirit,  the  people  issued  theirs  also 
in  the  form  and  power  peculiar  to  them.  The 
empire  shed  the  blood,  the  people  called  for  it ; 
and,  after  having  obtained  it,  they  threw  it  at  the 
face  of  Christ.  And,  behind  the  empire  and  the 
people,  rationalism,  forming  the  rear-guard  of 
idolatry,  eagerly  fed  its  pen  from  the  sources  of 
error.  Those  Platonists,  so  puifed  up  with  their 
spiritualism,  were  seen  tearing  up  the  Gospel 
page  by  page,  perverting  its  meaning,  and  launch- 


289 


ing  forth  their  maledictions  against  it ;  they  were 
seen  parading  their  affection  for  Jupiter  and  all 
the  old  gods,  writing  genealogies  for  them,  conse- 
crating a  new  philosophy,  bearing  offerings  to 
them ;  nothing  was  left  untried,  neither  science, 
nor  sarcasm,  nor  energy,  nothing  that  could  be 
turned  into  an  outrage  or  an  argument  against 
Christianity.  Is  this  what  they  call  the  lassitude 
of  minds?  Is  this  the  tacit  conjuration  of  the 
times  in  favor  of  Christ?  Ah!  when  at  length 
he  had  won  the  faith  of  the  world,  and  when  the 
successors  of  his  apostles  appeared  at  Nicea,  their 
mutilated  visages  showed  whether  they  came  from 
peace  or  war,  whether  they  had  been  favored 
or  persecuted,  whether  the  popular  spirit,  the 
political  spirit,  the  rationalist  spirit,  had  or  had 
not  been  their  servitors,  and  what  was  the  real 
value  of  those  systems  invented  after  the  fact, 
by  which  the  life  of  the  patient  is  explained  by 
the  tyrant  who  caused  his  death.  Julian,  at 
least,  said  what  was  true :  "  Galilean,  thou  hast 
conquered ! " 

Here  we  find  again,  in  regard  to  the  formation 
of  the  Christian  dogma,  not  the  principle  of  fu- 
sion, but  the  principle  of  contradiction.      Jesus 
Christ  contradicted  all  minds  as  he  contradicted 
13 


290 


all  doctrines,  lie  conquered  all  minds  as  lie  con- 
quered all  doctrines :  sucli  is  the  truth. 

It  was  not,  however,  enough  for  him  to  found 
a  doctrine  and  obtain  faith ;  it  was  not  enough 
to  found  a  doctrine  in  contradicting  all  other  doc- 
trines, to  found  a  spirit  of  faith  in  contradicting 
every  other  spirit.  He  had  in  addition  to  found 
a  Church,  that  is  to  say,  a  society  of  men  living 
by  that  doctrine  and  faith.  Rationalism,  in  order 
to  explain  his  success,  invokes  here  the  general 
state  of  nations.  It  says  that  in  the  time  of 
Augustus  a  double  want  was  felt,  namely,  a  want 
of  liberty  and  unity.  The  nations  one  after  an 
other  had  borne  the  yoke  of  the  Romans ;  and, 
stripped  of  their  independence,  victims  of  the  in- 
creasing rapacity  of  the  proconsuls,  they  marked 
the  progress  of  Roman  corruption,  watching,  like 
all  who  were  in  bondage,  for  that  hour  of  weak- 
ness which  inevitably  follows  ^^rosperity  when  it 
is  without  limit  or  counterpoise.  That  hour  ad- 
vanced rapidly;  Jesus  Christ  came  also,  at  the 
same  time,  at  the  precise  moment.  And  what 
brought  he  ?  The  elevation  of  the  lowly,  in  the 
idea  of  a  common  origin  and  a  holy  brotherhood ; 
strength  to  the  weak,  to  women,  to  children,  in 
the  idea  of  a  new  domestic  right ;  help  to  op- 


291 


pressed  peoples,  in  tte  idea  of  a  universal  repub- 
lic founded  by  God  Mmself  and  governed  by 
him.  What  could  be  more  attractive,  more  sure 
of  success  ?  When  then  Jesus  Christ  aj^peared, 
and  when  from  the  heart  of  Judaea  the  very  air 
had  borne  even  to  the  ends  of  the  world  his 
emancipating  word,  with  what  a  thrill  of  sacred 
hope  must  the  world  have  stood  up  and  watched ! 
What  wonder  if  women,  children,  those  who 
toiled,  the  slaves,  the  poor,  the  despised  of  every 
kind  and  of  every  country,  went  forth  to  meet 
him,  cast  their  garments  under  his  feet,  cut  down 
branches  from  the  trees  and  strewed  them  in  his 
way,  not  once  only,  when  he  entered  into  Jerusa- 
lem on  the  eve  of  his  death,  but  even  after  his 
death,  unwilling  to  believe  he  was  dead,  and  cry- 
ing to  his  disciples  as  to  him :  "  Hosanna  to  the 
Son  of  David !  Blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord."  '  That  hosanna  was  the 
cry  of  deliverance,  the  response  to  him  who  had 
heard  the  groanings  of  men ;  and  from  whereso- 
ever he  came,  whatsoever  name  he  took,  whatso- 
ever his  race  or  his  design,  man  or  God,  it  was 
impossible  for  him  not  to  be  accepted  as  he  pre- 
sented himself     What  it  matters  to  the  prisoner, 

»  St.  Matt.  xxi.  9, 


292 


set  free,  whence  liberty  comes  to  liim  ?  To  the 
miserable,  to  the  oppressed,  whence  the  deliverer 
comes  ? 

"  Who  saves  his  country  is  inspired  from  heaven  !  " 
I  grant,  gentlemen,  that  these  ideas  are  full  of 
charm  ;  it  touches  us  to  think  that  when  nations 
are  slaves  and  corrupted,  they  aspire  to  their 
emancipation.  But,  alas  !  history  pronounces  an- 
other judgment  than  the  heart  of  man.  We  learn 
from  history  that  nations  fallen  into  servitude  do 
not  desire  liberty.  As  the  apostate  from  truth 
inveighs  against  truth,  so  the  apostate  from  lib- 
erty, the  nation  which  has  lost  it  by  its  fault — 
and  it  is  always  lost  by  its  own  fault,  by  taking 
the  heart  of  a  slave — that  nation  no  longer  as- 
pires to  regain  it.  It  suffers,  it  is  degraded ;  but 
to  feel  its  misfortune  and  to  reconquer  the  treas- 
ure it  has  lost  requires  the  heart  of  the  free  man ; 
that  heart  it  has  no  longer.  It  loves  the  wages 
of  servitude,  and  dreads  the  duties  of  liberty,  es- 
pecially of  that  which  it  has  lost,  and  which  is  to 
be  purchased  at  such  a  price.  It  would  have  to 
despise  even  its  very  life,  to  be  ready  to  throw  it 
to  the  winds,  so  that  some  slight  lesson  might  be 
learned  from  its  death,  and  that  its  last  sigh,  even 
remotely,  might  serve  to  bring  about  deliverance 


293 


and  honor.  The  enslaved  nation  knows  not  this 
heroism,  and  perhaps  despises  it.  You  have  proofs 
of  this,  gentlemen,  elsewhere  even  than  in  history ; 
and  passing  over  the  continent  of  Europe,  I  will 
take  you  at  once  to  the  shores  of  Africa.  Observe 
the  negro  there.  You  send  your  squadrons  to 
protect  his  liberty  against  the  conspiracy  of  the 
slave-dealer ;  doubtless  you  do  well ;  it  is  perhaps 
a  duty,  it  is  certainly  an  honor.  But  are  you 
simple  enough  to  believe  that  you  will  prevent 
this  traffic  ?  Wherever  man  wills  to  sell  himself, 
he  finds  buyers ;  wherever  hearts  of  slaves  meet 
together,  they  form  masters,  even  when  they  do 
not  find  them  already  prepared.  As  long  as  the 
negro  will  sell  the  flesh  and  blood  of  his  country- 
man, all  the  squadrons  of  the  civilized  world  will 
not  lift  him  from  the  consequences  of  that  horri- 
ble baseness  of  heart ;  and  it  is  the  same,  more  or 
less,  with  all  nations  bent  under  the  yoke  of  serv- 
itude and  corruption.  Tliey  seek  no  deliverance, 
but  the  price  only  of  their  soul  and  body ;  and 
they  are  sufficiently  recompensed  for  the  abjection 
of  slavery  by  the  abjection  of  vice.  This  was  the 
state  of  the  Koman  world.  Jesus  Christ,  it  is 
true,  brought  them  liberty,  but  with  virtue  and 
by  virtue.     The  cost  was  too  great  for  them ;  they 


294 


jd  not  accept  it.  Even  after  tlie  Cliurcli  was 
founded,  tlie  empire  continued  in  decadency ;  it 
fell  from  Diocletian  to  the  eunuclis  of  Constanti- 
nople; and  when  the  West,  renewed  by  the  bar- 
barians, willed  to  go  to  its  help,  even  to  the  very 
centre  of  the  East,  when  it  armed  all  its  chivalry 
to  save  it,  that  wretched  people  extended  to  the 
Latin  hand  only  a  hand  incapable  of  sincerity. 
They  treasonably  rejected  the  blood  given  to  it, 
fearing  the  too  near  approach  of  men  who  knew 
how  to  wield  the  sword  and  to  devote  themselves. 
Jesus  Christ  may  well  found  a  Church,  but  not 
regenerate  an  empire.  He  formed  fi'ee  souls  in 
forming  pious  souls,  whom  he  drew  to  himself 
from  the  midst  of  the  general  corruption ;  but  the 
nations  did  not  answer  to  his  call,  as  nations,  in 
order  to  manifest  that  his  work  was  not  the  result 
of  political  circumstances  in  which  the  course  of 
things  had  led  mankind.  He  had  against  him 
the  passion  of  servitude,  instead  of  having  in  his 
favor  the  want  of  emancipation.  And  such  is 
still  the  state  of  his  Church  here  below.  Al- 
though favorable  to  all  the  legitimate  rights 
which  together  form  the  honor  and  liberty  of  na- 
tions, she  unceasingly  raises  up  against  herself 
the  instincts  of  servitude,  under  the  very  name 


295 


of  liberty.  They  ask  license  from  lier,  and  pro- 
pose to  her  oppression :  it  is  the  cry  of  nature  in 
all  times.  In  refusing  both  of  these,  now  as  here- 
tofore, she  doubtless  responds  to  the  real  wants 
of  mankind ;  but  she  responds  to  them  after  the 
manner  of  God,  by  a  force  which  imposes  itself 
and  by  a  blessing  whose  glory  none  but  the  bene- 
factor can  claim. 

It  is  the  same  in  regard  to  unity.  I  do  not 
deny  that  the  Roman  empire,  by  subjecting  many 
diverse  peoples  under  a  common  administration, 
had  spread  in  minds  the  idea  of  a  vast  social  or- 
ganization. But  that  idea,  in  the  degree  in  which 
it  existed,  did  not  pass  over  the  very  limited  cir- 
cle of  a  purely  political  domination.  They  did 
not  perceive,  even  in  the  depths  of  that  unity,  the 
idea  that  the  human  race  was  a  single  being  or  a 
single  body.  By  unity,  they  understood  that  one 
single  nation  became  master  of  the  others ;  one 
Caesar,  the  Caesar  of  the  world ;  but  of  the  spirit- 
ual unity  of  souls  by  faith,  hope,  and  charity, 
under  a  single  visible  chief,  the  representative 
and  vicar  of  God,  they  had  not  even  the  most  con- 
fused notion.  As  soon  as  the  universal  Church 
had  advanced  a  step  in  the  world,  and  had  thus 
revealed  this  secret  of  her  destiny,  it  gave  rise 


290 


only  to  an  immense  fear,  the  enduring  repercus- 
sion of  whicli  she  still  feels.  The  passion  of  na- 
tionality is  as  strong  now  against  the  Church  as 
it  was  eighteen  centuries  ago  ;  and  those  even 
who  aspire  to  the  social  unity  of  the  human  race 
cannot  endure  the  idea  of  the  Christian  republic, 
other  than  as  a  figure  or  a  pattern  which  they  use 
to  represent  their  own  conception.  What  philos- 
opher or  what  statesman  dreams  of  unity  in  the 
Christian  sense,  save  to  fear  and  detest  it  ?  You 
see,  gentlemen,  that  in  examining  facts,  not  only 
ancient  but  present,  we  arrive  at  the  same  conclu- 
sion, namely,  that  the  principle  of  the  success  of 
Jesus  Chi'ist,  whether  in  regard  to  the  formation 
of  his  doctrine,  or  to  the  propagation  of  his  faith 
or  the  establishment  of  his  Church,  was  not  a 
principle  of  fusion,  but  a  principle  of  contradic- 
tion. As  he  had  contradicted  all  doctrines  by 
his  own,  all  minds  by  his  own,  he  has  contradicted 
all  nations  by  his  Church,  that  is  to  say,  he  has 
braved  and  still  braves,  in  the  j^erpetuity  of  his 
work,  all  the  combined  forces  of  mankind. 

Let  us  go  further,  gentlemen,  and  seek  the  su- 
preme cause  of  that  contradiction.  Let  us  seek 
why  Jesus  Christ  contradicts  all  and  is  contra- 
dicted by  all — too  often  even  by  those  who  jyos- 


297 


sess  his  faith,  who  belong  to  his  Church,  who  eat 
his  flesh  and  drink  his  blood.  The  cause  of  this 
is  not  in  the  region  of  the  mind ;  rationalism  de- 
ceives itself  in  seeking  there  the  explanation  of 
the  Christian  mysteiy.  Jesus  Christ  advances 
beyond  the  intelligence,  he  reaches  even  the  soul, 
which  is  the  centre  of  all,  and  demands  from  it 
the  sacrifice  of  its  most  cherished  inclinations,  in 
order  to  convert  it  from  evil  to  good,  from  pride 
to  humility,  from  sensuality  to  chastity,  from  en- 
joyment to  mortification,  from  egotism  to  charity, 
from  corruption  to  holiness.  And  man  opposes 
thereto  an  obstinate  resistance;  he  arms  against 
Jesus  Christ  his  reason,  his  heart,  the  world,  the 
human  race,  heaven  and  earth ;  and  even  when 
vanquished  by  the  sense  of  his  misery  and  by 
the  tested  gentleness  of  the  yoke  of  the  Gospel, 
he  does  not  cease  to  feel  within  himself,  even  to 
his  last  moment,  a  possibility  and  a  secret  desire 
to  revolt.  Here  the  whole  secret  lies.  And  if 
you  would  understand  how  difficult  is  the  tri- 
umph of  Jesus  Christ,  I  propose  to  you,  not  the 
conversion  of  the  world,  but  of  one  single  man. 
I  ask  you,  princes  of  nations,  you  who  command 
by  intelligence,  wealth,  or  power,  I  ask  you  to 
make  a  man  humble  and  chaste,  a  penitent,  a  soul 
13* 


298 


wlio  judges  Ms  pride  and  his  senses,  who  despises 
himself,  who  hates  himself,  who  strusjo-les  ao:ainst 
himself,  and  either  as  proof  or  as  the  means  of 
his  conversion,  humbly  avows  the  errors  of  his 
life.  I  ^sk  but  this  from  you.  Can  you  accom- 
plish it  ?  Have  you  ever  done  so  ?  Ah !  if  a 
king,  radiant  in  the  majesty  of  the  throne,  were 
to  call  you  into  his  cabinet,  and  press  you  to  con- 
fess your  faults  at  his  feet,  you  would  say  to  him : 
Sire,  I  would  rather  confess  them  to  the  man  who 
makes  shoes  for  my  feet !  If  the  most  famous 
philosopher  of  his  age  were  to  use  all  his  elo- 
quence to  persuade  you  to  kneel  and  confess  your 
sins  to  him,  you  would  not  deign  even  to  turn 
away  from  laughing  in  his  face.  Pardon  these 
expressions,  gentlemen,  they  would  be  ill-placed 
on  other  occasions;  here,  they  are  but  just  and 
grave.  And  yet,  what  kings,  philosophers,  and 
nations  are  unable  to  obtain,  a  poor  priest,  a  man 
iinknown,  the  most  obscure  among  men,  daily  ac- 
complishes in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  sees 
souls  touched  by  their  misery,  coming  to  seek  him 
who  knows  them  not,  and  avow  to  him  in  all  sin- 
cerity the  degradations  of  their  passions.  It  is 
the  door  by  which  men  enter  into  Jesus  Christ, 
by   which    they   repose   in   him,  by   which   the 


299 


Cliurcli  herself  enters ;  for  the  Churcli  is  but  the 
world  penitent ;  and  that  single  word  reveals  to 
you  the  whole  miracle  of  her  foundation  and  per- 
petuity, as  it  will  also  explain  to  you  the  force  of 
active  and  passive  contradiction  which  is  in  Jesus 
Christ.  Jesus  Christ  contradicts  all  doctrines, 
because  his  doctrine  is  holy  and  the  world  is 
corrupt ;  he  contradicts  every  spirit,  because  his 
spirit  is  holy  and  the  world  is  corrupt ;  he  con- 
tradicts all  nations,  because  his  Church  is  holy 
and  the  world  is  corrupt ;  and  for  the  same 
reason  the  world  contradicts  the  doctrines,  the 
spirit,  and  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ. 

It  was  then  with  justice,  in  a  certain  sense,  that 
in  the  first  proceedings  directed  against  Christians, 
by  the  orders  of  Nero,  they  were  convicted,  ac- 
cording to  Tacitus,  of  "  hatred  against  the  human 
race."  They  hated,  in  fact,  all  that  the  world  es- 
teemed ;  they  pursued  all  its  ideas  and  all  its 
affections,  in  order  to  destroy  them  utterly  ;  and 
although  they  did  this  from  love  for  the  world, 
the  world  was  not  bound  to  understand  and 
thank  them  for  it.  Even  charity,  so  new  was  it, 
clothed  herself  in  hostile  colors,  and  the  death  of 
Jesus  Christ  upon  the  cross — that  masterpiece  of 
love — appeared  rather  like  an  insult  than  devot- 


300 


edness.  All  was  contradiction,  because  all  was 
God ;  and  in  order  to  prove  that  nothing  of  this 
was  of  man,  Jesus  Christ  was  for  ever  to  be  rec- 
ognized by  this  sign,  according  as  it  was  said  of 
him  at  the  moment  of  his  first  appearing  among 
men :  "  This  child  is  set  up  for  a  sign  which  shall 
be  contradicted."  '  And  he  himself,  recalling  the 
prophecies,  said  to  his  enemies :  "  The  stone  which 
the  builders  rejected  has  become  the  corner-stone; 
the  Lord  hath  done  this,  and  it  is  wonderful  in 
our  eyes." '  The  prophecy  is  still  accomplished 
daily;  princes,  nations,  savants,  sages,  the  skil- 
ful, the  builders,  in  fine,  reject  the  stone;  they 
declare  it  to  be  unfit  or  worn  out  by  time ;  they 
will  accept  it  no  longer ;  and  yet  it  is  still  "  the 
corner-stone,  and  it  is  wonderful  in  our  eyes."  It 
supports  all,  although  it  is  rejected  by  all;  it 
possesses  the  double  character  of  necessity  and 
impossibility.  Recognize  here,  gentlemen,  a  strug- 
gle between  two  unequal  wills — the  will  of  man 
which  revolts,  and  the  will  of  God  which  causes 
itself  to  be  obeyed  by  man,  in  man,  and  in  spite 
of  man.  And  you  Christians,  sons  of  this  work 
wherein  God  gives  you  so  favored  a  place,  learn 
the  need  of  constant  sufi'ering,  of  not  triumphing 

» St.  Luke  ii.  34.  « St.  Matt.  xxi.  43. 


301 


by  triumph,  that  Jesus  Christ  may  not  be  accused 
of  owing  something  to  man,  but  of  triumphing 
upon  the  cross,  so  that  your  victory  may  be  of 
God,  and  that  you  may  be  able,  now  and  hence- 
forth, to  repeat  those  words  which,  after  so  many 
other  signs  witnessed  by  you,  express  the  highest 
sign  of  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ :  "  The  stone 
which  the  builders  rejected  has  become  the  corner- 
stone ;  the  Lord  hath  done  this,  and  it  is  wonder- 
ful in  our  eyes  !  " 


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